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4 




TREASURE ISLAND 


A STORY OF THE SPANISH MAIN. 


By ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON, 

M 

Author of ** Travels with a Donkey** **An Inland Voyage** ' 
Master of BaUantrae,** etc., etc. 


The 


n. L. BURT COMPANY, Publishers 
52-55 Duane Street. New York 




^ 7.3 

T 

6 


Bequest 

Albert Adsit Olemona 
Aug. 24, 1938 
(Not available lor exchange) 


/iii^ hi~ 




{ 




S. L. O., 


; AN AMERICAN GENTLEMAN, 

I 

i 

IN ACCORDANCE WITH WHOSE CLASSIC TASTE 


THE FOLLOWING NARRATIVE MAS BEEN DESIGNED* 


ST IS NOW, IN RETURN FOR NUMEROUS DEUGHTFUL HOURS 


AND WITH THE KINDEST WISHES, 


DEDICATED 


aV BIS AFFBCnONATB FRIEND, 


Tbb Acmcf^ 


m THE HESITATING PURCHA^ 


If sailor tales to sailor tunes, 

Storm and adventure, heat and coId« 
If schooners, islands, and maroons, 
And Buccaneers and buried Gold, 
And all the old romance, retold 
Exactly in the ancient way. 

Can please, as me they pleased of oM, 
T^e wiser youngsters of to-day: 

So be it, and fall on ! If not, 

If studious youth no longer crave^ 
His ancient appetites forgot, 

Kingston, or Ballantyne the brare^ 
Or Cooper of the wood and wave: 

So be it, also 1 And may I 
And all my pirates share the grave 
Where these and their creations 




CONTENTS 


PART I.— THE OLD BUCCANEER. 

CHAPTER I. 

PAGKi 

The Old Sea Dog at the “ Admiral Benbow 1 

CHAPTER II. 

Black Dog Appears and Disappears 10 

CHAPTER III. 

The Black Spot 10 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Sea Chest 27 

CHAPTER V. 

The Last of the Blind Man 35 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Captain’s Papers 43 


PART 11. —THE SEA COOK. 

CHAPTER VII. 

I Go to Bristol 53 

CHAPTER VIII. 

At the Sign of the ** Spy-glass ” 6G 

CHAPTER IX. 

Powder and Arms. 67 

CHAPTER X. 

The Voyage. 75 


viii 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER XI. 

PAGE. 

WLat I Heard in the Apple Barrel 83 

CHAPTER XII. 

Council of War 93 


PAKT III.— MY SHORE ADVENTURE. 


CHAPTER XIII. 

How my Shore Adventure Began 103 

CHAPTER XIV. 

The First Blow 110 

CHAPTER XV. 

The Man of the Island 118 


PART IV.— THE STOCKADE. 


CHAPTER XVI. 

Narrative Continued by the Doctor: How the Ship was Aban- 
doned 129 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Narrative Continued by the Doctor: The Jolly Boat’s Last Trip. 136 
CHAPTER XVIII. 

Narrative Continued by the Doctor: End of the First Day’s 
Fighting 142 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Narrative Resumed by Jim Hawkins: The Garrison in the 
Stockade 149 

CHAPTER XX. 

Silver’s Embassy 167 

CHAPTER XXL 

The Attack. 165 


CONTENTS. 


12 


PAET V.— MY SEA ADVENTUKE. 

CHAPTER XXII. 

PAGE. 

How my Sea Adventure Began 175 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

The Ebb-Tide Runs 188 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

The Cruise of the Coracle 190 

CHAPTER XXV. 

I Strike the Jolly Roger 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

Israel Hands 205 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

^ieces of Eight ” 210 


PAET VI.— CAPTAIN SILVEE. 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

In the Enemy’s Camp 227 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

The Black Spot Again 238 

CHAPTER XXX. 

On Parole 247 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

The Treasure Hunt — Flint’s Pointer 256 

CHAPTER XXXir. 

The Treasure Hunt — The Voice among the Trees. 265 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

The Fall of a Chieftain 278 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

And Last • • • * * 


X 


CONTENTS. 


THE MERRY MEN, 


CHAPTER I. 

PAGE. 

Eilean Aros 291 

CHAPTER II. 

What the Wreck had Brought to Aros 300 

CHAPTER III. 

Land and Sea in Sandag Baj 317 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Gale 332 

CHAPTER V, 

A Man Out of the Sea 347 


PART 1. 


THE OLD BUCCANEER. 



TREASURE ISLAND, 


CHAPTER L 

l-HB OLD SEA DOG AT THE “ADMIRAL BENBO'\T.” 

Squire Trelawhey, Dr. Livesey, and the rest of 
these gentlemen having asked me to write down 
the whole particulars about Treasure Island, from 
the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but 
the bearings of the island, and that only because 
there is still treasure not yet lifted, I take up my 
pen in the year of grace 17 — , and go back to the 
time when my father kept the “ Admiral Benbow ” 
inn, and the brown old seaman, with the saber cut, 
first took up his lodging under our roof. 

I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he 
came plodding to the inn door, his sea-chest follow- 
ing behind him in a handbarrow ; a tall, strong, 
heavy, nut-brown man ; his tarry pigtail falling 
over the shoulders of his soiled blue coat ; his hands 
ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails ; and 
the saber cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white. 
I remember him looking round the cove and whist- 
ling to himself as he did so, and then breaking out 
in that old sea-song that he sang so often after* 
ward; 


2 


TREASUBE ISLAJ^fD. 


Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest— 

Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of ruml” 

in the high, old tottering voice that seemed to have 
been tuned and broken at the capstan bars. Then 
he rapped on the door with a bit of stick like a 
handspike that he carried, and when my father ap- 
peared, called roughly for a glass of rum. This, 
when it was brought to him, he drank slowly, like 
a connoisseur, lingering on the taste, and still 
looking about him at the cliffs and up at our sign- 
board. 

This is a handy cove,” says he, at length ; “ and 
a pleasant sittyated grog-shop. Much company, 
mate 

My father told him no, very little company, the 
more was the pity. 

Well, then,” said he, “ this is the berth for me. 
Here you, matey,” he cried to the man who trun- 
dled the barrow ; “ bring up alongside and help un 
my chest. Til stay here a bit,” he continued. “ Ihn 
a plain man ; rum and bacon and eggs is what I 
want, and that head up there for to watch ships off. 
What you mought call me ? You mought call me 
captain. Oh, I see what you’re at — there ;” and he 
threw down three or four gold pieces on the thresh- 
old. “ You can tell me when I’ve worked through 
that,” says he, looking as fierce as a commander. 

And, indeed, bad as his clothes were, and coarsely 
as he spoke, he had none of the appearance of a 
man who sailed before the mast ; but seemed like a 
mate or skipper, accustomed to be obeyed or to 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


3 


strike. The man who came with the barrow told us 
the mail had set him down the morning before at 
the “Eoyal George;” that he had inquired what 
inns there were along the coast, and hearing ours 
well spoken of, I suppose, and described as lonely, 
had chosen it from the others for his place of resi- 
dence. And that was all we could learn of our 
guest. 

He was a very silent man by custom. All day he 
hung round the cove, or upon the cliffs, with a brass 
telescope; all evening he sat in a corner of the 
parlor next the lire, and drank rum and water very 
strong. Mostly he would not speak when spoken 
to ; only look u]) sudden and fierce, and blow through 
his nose like a fog horn ; and we and the people who 
came about our house soon learned to let him be. 
Every day, when he came back from his stroll, he 
would ask if any seafaring men had gone by along 
the road. At first we thought it was the want of 
company of his own kind that made him a«k this 
question ; but at last we began to see he was desirous 
to avoid them. When a seaman put up at the 
“Admiral Benbow” (as now and then some did, 
making by the coast road for Bristol), he would look 
in at him through the curtained door before he 
entered the parlor ; and he was always sure to be as 
silent as a mouse when any such was present. For 
me, at least, there was no secret about the matter ; 
for I was, in a way, a sharer in his alarms. He had 
taken me aside one day, and promised me a silver 
fourpenny on the first of every month if I would 


4 


treasuhe i8Larj>. 


only keep my weather-eye open for a seafaring man 
with one leg,” and let him know the moment he ap- 
peared. Often enough, when the first of the month 
came round, and I applied to him for my wage, he 
would only blow through his nose at me, and stare 
me down ; but before the week was out he was sure 
to think better of it, bring me my fourpenny piece, 
and repeat his orders to look out for “ the seafaring 
man with one leg.” 

How that personage haunted my dreams, I need 
scarcely tell you. On stormy nights, when the wind 
shook the four corners of the house, and the surf 
roared along the cove and up the cliffs, I would see 
him in a thousand forms, and with a thousand dia- 
bolical expressions. How the leg would be cut off at 
the knee, now at the hip; now he was a monstrous 
kind of a creature who had never had but the one 
leg, and that in the middle of his body. To see him 
leap and run and pursue me over hedge and ditch 
was the worst of nightmares. And altogether I 
paid pretty dear for my monthly fourpenny piece, 
in the shape of these abominable fancies. 

But though 1 was so terrified by the idea of the 
seafaring man with one leg, I was far less afraid of 
the captain himself than anybody else who knew 
him. There were nights when he took a deal more 
rum and water than his head would carry ; and then 
he would sometimes sit and sing his wicked, old, 
wild sea-songs, minding nobody ; but sometimes he 
would call for glasses round, and force all the trem- 
bling company to listen to his stories or bear a 


TREASUBK ISLAND, 


5 


chorus to his singing. Often I have heard the house 
shaking with “ Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum;’’ all 
Ihe neighbors joining in for dear life, with the fear 
of death upon them, and each singing louder than 
the other, to avoid remark. For in these fits he 
was the most overriding companion ever known ; 
he would slap his hand on the table for silence all 
round ; he would fly up in a passion of anger at a 
question, or sometimes because none was put, and so 
he judged the company was not following his story, 
i^or would he allow any one to leave the inn till he 
had drunk himself sleepy and reeled off to bed. 

His stories were what frightened people worst of 
all. Dreadful stories they were ; about hanging, 
and walking the plank, and storms at sea, and the 
Dry Tortugas, and wild deeds and places on the 
Spanish Main. By his own account he must have 
lived his life among some of the wickedest men 
that God ever allowed upon the sea ; and the 
language in which he told these stories shocked our 
plain country people almost as much as the crimes 
that he described. My father was always saying 
the inn would be ruined, for people would soon 
3ease coming there to be tyrannized over and put 
down, and sent shivering to their beds ; but I really 
believe his presence did us good. People were 
frightened at the time, but on looking back they 
rather liked it ; it was a fine excitement in a quiet 
country life ; and there was even a party of the 
younger men who pretended to admire him, calling 
him a ‘‘ true sea-dog,” and a “ real old salt,” and 


6 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


such like names, and saying there was the sort of 
man that made England terrible at sea. 

In one way, indeed, he bade fair to ruin us ; for 
he kept on staying week after week, and at last 
month after month, so that all the money had been 
long exhausted, and still my father never plucked 
up the heart to insist on having more. If ever he 
mentioned it, the captain blew through his nose so 
loudly, that you might say he roared, and stared 
iiy poor father out of the room. I have seen him 
wringing his hands after such a rebuff, and I am 
sure the annoyance and the terror he lived in must 
have greatly hastened his early and unhappy death. 

All the time he lived with us the captain made 
no change whatever in his dress but to buy some 
stockings from a hawker. One of the cocks of his 
hat having fallen down, he let it hang from that 
day forth, though it was a great annoyance when 
it blew. I remember the appearance of his coat, 
which he patched himself upstairs in his room, and 
which, before the end, was nothing but patches. 
He never wrote or received a letter, and he never 
spoke with any but the neighbors, and with these, 
for the most part, only when drunk on rum. The 
great sea-chest none of us had ever seen open. 

He was only once crossed, and that was toward 
the end, when my poor father was far gone in a de- 
cline that took him off. Dr. Livesey came late one 
afternoon to see the patient, took a bit of dinner 
from my mother, and went into the parlor to smoke 
a pipe until his horse should come down from the 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


7 


hamlet, for we had no stabling at the old “ Benbow.” 
I followed him in, and I remember observing the 
contrast the neat, bright doctor, with his powder as 
white as snow, and his bright, black eyes and 
pleasant manners, made with the coltish country 
folk, and above all, with that filth}^ heavy, bleared 
scarecrow of a pirate of ours, sitting far gone in rum, 
with his arms on the table. Suddenly he — the cap- 
tain, that is — bega.n to pipe up his eternal song; 

“ Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest — 

Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum 1 
Drink and the devil had done for the rest — 
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum I” 

At first I had supposed “the dead man’s chest” 
to be that identical big box of his upstairs in the 
front room, and the thought had been mingled in 
my nightmares with that of the one-legged seafaring 
man. But by this time we had all long ceased to 
pay any particular notice to the song ; it was new, 
that night, to nobody but Dr. Livesey, and on him 
I observed it did not produce an agreeable effect, 
for he looked up for a moment quite angrily before 
he went on with his talk to old Taylor, the gardener, 
on a new cure for the rhuematics. In the mean- 
time, the captain gradually brightened up at his own 
music, and at last fiapped his hand upon the table 
before him in a way we all knew to mean — silence. 
The voices stopped at once, all but Dr. Livesey’s ; 
he went on as before, speaking clear and kind, and 
drawing briskly at his pipe between every word or 


8 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


two. The captain glared at him for awhile, flapped 
his hand again, glared still harder, and at last broke 
out with a villainous, low oath ; “ Silence, there, be- 
tween decks 1” 

“ Were you addressing me, sir?” says the doctor; 
and when the ruffian had told him, with another 
oath, that this was so, “ I have only one thing to say 
to you, sir,” replies the doctor, “ that if you keep on 
drinking rum, the world will soon be quit of a very 
dirt}’^ scoundrel 1” 

The old fellow’s fury was awful. He sprang to 
his feet, drew and opened a sailor’s clasp knife, and, 
balancing it open on the palm of his hand, threatened 
to pin the doctor to the wall. 

The doctor never so much as moved. He spoke to 
him, as before, over his shoulder, and in the same 
tone of voice; rather high, so that all the room 
might hear, but perfectly calm and steady : 

“ If you do not put that knife this instant in your 
pocket, I promise, upon my honor, you shall hang at 
the next assizes.” 

Then followed a battle of looks between them ; 
but the captain soon knuckled under, put up his 
weapon, and resumed his seat, grumbling like a 
beaten dog. 

“ And now, sir,” continued the doctor, “ since I now 
know there’s such a fellow in my district, you may 
count I’ll have an eye upon you day and night. 
I’m not a doctor only ; I’m a magistrate ; and if I 
catch a breath of complaint against you, if it’s only 
for a piece of incivility like to-night’s, I’ll take effeo 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


tual means to have you hunted down and routed 
out of this. Let that suffice.” 

Soon after Dr. Livesey’s horse came to the door, 
and he rode away ; but the captain held his peace 
that evening, and for many evenings to come. 


^0 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


CHAPTER II 

BLACK DOC APPEARS AND DISAPPEARS. 

It was not very long after this that there occurred 
ihe first of the mysterious events that rid us at last 
of the captain, though not, as you will see, of his 
affairs. It was a bitter cold winter, with long, hard 
frosts and heavy gales ; and it was plain from the 
first that my poor father was little likely to see the 
spring. He sank daily, and my mother and I had 
all the inn upon our hands ; and were kept busy 
enough, without paying much regard to our unpleas- 
ant guest. 

It was one January morning, very early — a pinch- 
ing, frosty morning — the cove all gray with hoar- 
frost, the ripple lapping softly on the stones, the 
sun still low and only touching the hilltops and 
shining far to seaward. The captain had risen 
earlier than usual, and set out down the beach, his 
cutlass swinging under the broad skirts of the old 
blue coat, his brass telescope under his arm, his hat 
tilted back upon his head. I remember his breath 
hanging like smoke in his wake as he strode off, and 
the last sound I heard of him, as he turned the big 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


11 


rock, was a loud snort of indignation, as though his 
mind was still running upon Dr. Livesey. 

Well, mother was upstairs with father; and I 
was laying the breakfast-table against the captain’s 
return, when the parlor door opened, and a man 
stepped in on whom I had never set my eyes before. 
He was a pale, tallowy creature, wanting two fin- 
gers of the left hand ; and, though he wore a cutlass, 
he did not look much like a fighter. I had always 
my eye open for seafaring men, with one leg or two, 
and I remember this one puzzled me. He was not 
sailorly, and yet he had a smack of the sea about 
him too. 

I asked him what was for his service, and he said 
he would take rum ; but as I was going out of the 
room to fetch it he sat down upon a table, and 
motioned me to draw near. I paused where I was 
with my napkin in my hand. 

“Come here, sonny,” says he. “Come neare? 
here.” 

I took a step nearer. 

“ Is this here table for my mate, Bill ?” he asked, 
with a kind of leer. 

I told him I did not know his mate Bill ; and this 
was for a person who stayed in our house, whom we 
called the captain. 

“Well,” said he, “my mate Bill would be called 
the captain, as like as not. He has a cut on one 
cheek, and a mighty pleasant way with him, partic 
ularly in drink, has my mate, Bill. We’ll put it, 
for argument like, that your captain has a cut on 


:2 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


one cheek — and we’ll put it, if you like, that that 
cheek’s the right one. Ah, well! I told you. Now^, 
is my mate Bill in this here house?” 

I told him he was out walking. 

“ Which way, sonny ? Which way is he gone ?” 

And when I had pointed out the rock and told 
him how the captain was likely to return, and how 
soon, and answered a few other questions, “ Ah,” 
said he, “ this’ll be as good as drink to my mate 
Bill.” 

The expression of his face as he said these words 
was not at all pleasant, and I had my own reasons 
for thinking that the stranger was mistaken, even 
supposing he meant what he said. But it was no 
aifair of mine, I thought ; and, besides, it was diificult 
to know what to do. The stranger kept hanging 
about just inside the inn door, peering round the 
corner like a cat waiting for a mouse. Once I step- 
ped out myself into the road, but he immediately 
called me back, and, as I did not obey quick enough 
for his fancy, a most horrible change came over his 
tallowy face, and he ordered me in, with an oath 
that made me jump. As soon as I was back again 
he returned to his former manner, half fawning, half 
sneering, patted me on the shoulder, told me I was 
a good boy, and he had taken quite a fancy to me. 
“ I have a son of my own,” said he, “ as like you as 
two blocks, and he’s all the pride of my ’art. But 
the great thing for boys is discipline, sonny — dis- 
cipline. ]!^ow, if you had sailed along of Bill, you 
wouldn’t have stood there to be spoke to twice — not 


TUEA&UBE ISLAND. 


13 


fou. That was never Bill’s way, nor the way of 
sich as sailed with him. And here, sure enough, is 
my mate Bill, with a spy glassv under his arm, bless 
his old ’art, to be sure. You and me’ll just go back 
into the parlor, sonny, and get behind the door, and 
we’ll give Bill a little surprise — bless his ’art, I say 
again.” 

So saying, the stranger backed along with me into 
the parlor, and put me behind him in the corner, so 
that we were both hidden by the open door. I was 
very uneasy and alarmed, as you may fancy, and it 
rather added to my fears to observe that the stranger 
was certainly frightened himself. He cleared the 
hilt of his cutlass and loosened the blade in the 
sheath ; and all the time we were waiting there he 
kept swallowing as if he felt what we used to call a 
lump in the throat. 

At last in strode the captain, slammed the door 
behind him, without looking to the right or left, and 
marched straight across the room to where his break' 
fast awaited him. 

“Bill,” said the stranger, in a voice that I thought 
he had tried to make bold and big. 

The captain spun round on his heel and fronted 
us ; all the brown had gone out of his face, and even 
his nose was blue ; he had the look of a man who 
sees a ghost, or the evil one, or something worse, if 
anything can be ; and, upon my word, I felt sorry 
to see him, all in a moment, turn so old and sick. 

“ Come, Bill, you know me ; you know an old 
shipmate, Bilk surely/’ said the stranger. 


14 


TREASURE ISLAm) 


The captain made a sort of gasp. 

“ Black Dog 1” said he. 

“And who elsef^ returned the other, getting 
more at his ease. “ Black Dog as ever was, come 
for to see his old shipmate Billy, at the ‘ Admiral 
Benbow’ inn. Ah, Bill, Bill, we have seen a sight 
of times, us two, since I lost them two talons,” hold- 
ing up his mutilated hand, 

“ Now, look here,” said the captain ; “ you’ve run 
me down ; here I am ; well, then, speak up : what is 
it?” 

“ That’s you, Bill,” returned Black Dog, “ you’re 
in the right of it, Billy, I’ll have a glass of rum 
from this dear child here, as I’ve took such a liking 
to; and we’ll sit down, if you please, and talk 
square, like old shipmates.” 

When I returned with the rum, they were already 
seated on either side of the captain’s breakfast-table 
— Black Dog next to the door, and sitting sideways, 
so as to have one eye on his old shipmate, and one, 
as I thought, on his retreat. 

He bade me go, and leave the door wide open. 
“None of your keyholes for me, sonny,” he said; 
and I left them together, and retired into the bar. 

For a long time, though I certainly did my best to 
listen, I could hear nothing but a low gabbling ; but 
at last the voices began to grow higher, and I could 
pick up a word or two, mostly oaths, from the cap- 
tain. 

“ No, no, no, no ; and an end of it !” he cried once. 
And again, “ If it comes to swinging, swing all, 
say 1«” 


TREASURE ISLAED. 


It) 


Then all of a sudden there was a tremendous ex- 
plosion of oaths and other noises — the chair and 
table went over in a lump, a clash of steel followed, 
and then a cry of pain, and the next instant I saw 
Black Dog in full flight, and the captain hotly pur- 
suing, both with drawn cutlasses, and the former 
streaming blood from the left shoulder. Just at 
the door, the captain aimed at the fugitive one 
last tremendous cut, which would certainly have 
split him to the chine had it not been intercepted 
by our big signboard of Admiral Benbow. You 
may see the notch on the lower side of the frame tc 
this day. 

That blow was the last of the battle. Once oul 
upon the road. Black Dog, in spite of his wound, 
showed a wonderful clean pair of heels, and disap 
peared over the edge of the hill in half a minute 
The captain, for his part, stood staring at the sign- 
board like a bewildered man. Then he passed his 
hand over his eyes several times, and at last turned 
back into the house. 

“ Jim,” says he, “ rum and as he spoke, he reeled 
a little, and caught himself with one hand agains* 
the wall, 

“ Are you hurt cried I 

“ Bum,” he repeated, I must get away from 
here. Bum I rum I” 

I ran to fetch it ; but I was quite nnsteadied by 
all that had fallen out, and I broke one glass and 
fouled the tap, and while I was still getting in my 
own way, I heard a loud fall in the parlor, and 


TBEASURE ISLAND. 


id 

running in, beheld the captain lying full length 
upon the floor. At the same instant my mother, 
alarmed by the cries and fighting, came running 
downstairs to help me. Between us we raised his 
head. He was breathing very loud, and hard ; but 
his eyes were closed, and his face a horrible color. 

“ Dear, deary me,” cried my mother, “ what a 
disgrace upon the house! And your poor father 
sick !” 

In the meantime, we had no idea what to do to 
help the captain, nor any other thought but that he 
had got his death-hurt in the scuffle with the stranger. 
I got the rum, to be sure, and tried to put it down 
his throat ; but his teeth were tightly shut, and his 
jaws as strong as iron. It was a happy relief for us 
when the door opened and Dr. Livesey came in, 
on his visit to my father. 

“ Oh, doctor,” we cried, “ what shall we do ? 
Where is he wounded 

“Wounded? A fiddlestick’s end!” said the 
doctor. “No more wounded than you or I. The 
man has had a stroke, as I warned him. Now, Mrs. 
Hawkins, just you run upstairs to your husband, 
and tell him, if possible, nothing about it. For my 
part, I must do my best to save this fellow’s trebly 
worthless life ; and Jim, you get me a basin.” 

When I got back with the basin, the doctor haa 
already ripped up the captain’s sleeve, and exposed 
his great sinewy arm. It was tattooed in several 
places. “Here’s luck,” “A fair wind,” and “Billy 
Bones his fancy,” were very neatly and clearly exo 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


17 


cuted on the forearm ; and up near the shoulder 
there was a sketch of a gallows and a man hanging 
from it — done, as I thought, with great spirit. 

“ Prophetic,” said the doctor, touching this picture 
with his finger. “ And now. Master Billy Bones, if 
that be your name, we’U have a look at the color of 
your blood. Jim,” he said, “are you afraid of 
blood?” 

“ Xo, sir,” said L 

“Well, then,” said he, “you hold the basin and 
with that he took his lancet and opened a vein, 

A great deal of blood was taken before the captain 
opened his eyes and looked mistily about him. First 
he recognized the doctor with an unmistakable 
frown ; then his glance fell upon me, and he looked 
relieved. But suddenly his color changed, and he 
tried to raise himself, crying : 

“ Where’s Black Dog ?” 

“ There is no Black Dog here,” said the doctor, 
“ except what you have on your own back. You have 
been drinking rum ; you have had a stroke, precisely 
as I told you ; and I have just, very much against 
my own wiU, dragged you headforemost out of the 

grave. iN'ow, Mr. Bones ^ 

That’s not my name,” he interrupted. 

“Much I care,” returned the doctor. “IPs the 
name of a buccaneer of my acquaintance ; and I call 
you by it for the sake of shortness, and what I have 
to say to you is this : one glass of rum won’t kill 
you, but if you take one you’ll take another and an- 
other, and I stake my wig if you don’t break off 


18 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


short, you’ll die — do you understand that ? — die, and 
go to your own place, like the man in the Bible. 
Come, now, make an effort. I’ll help you to your 
bed for once.” 

Between us, with much trouble, we managed to 
hoist him upstairs, and laid him on his bed, where 
his head fell back on the pillow, as if he were almost 
fainting. 

“ Now, mind you,” said the doctor, “ I clear my 
conscience — the name of rum for you is death.” 

And with that he went off to see my father, taking 
me with him by the arm. 

“ This is nothing,” he said, as soon as he had closed 
the door. “ I have drawn blood enough to keep him 
quiet awhile ; he should lie for a week where he is 
—that is the best thing for him and you ; but another 
stroke would settle him.” 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


19 


CHAPTER IIL 

1 THE BLACK SPOT. 

Abottt noon 1 stopped at the captain’s door with 
some cooling drinks and medicines. He was lying 
very much as we had left him, only a little higher, 
and he seemed both weak and excited. 

“Jim,” he said, “you’re the only one here that’s 
worth anything ; and you know I’ve been always 
good to you. Never a month but I’ve given you a 
silver fourpenny for yourself. And now you see, 
mate. I’m pretty low, and deserted by all; and Jim, 
you’ll bring me one noggin of rum, now, won’t you 
matey ?” 

“ The doctor — I began. 

But he broke in cursing the doctor, in a feeble 
V voice, but heartily. “ Doctors is all swabs,” he said ; 
f“and that doctor there, why, what do he know 
about seafaring men ? I been in places hot as pitch, 
and mates dropping round with Yellow Jack, and 
the blessed land a-heaving like the sea with earth- 
quakes — what do the doctor know of lands like that ? 
—and I lived on rum, I tell you. It’s been meat and 
drink, and man and wife, to me ; and if I’m not to 
have my rum now I’m a poor old ?k on a lee 


TREASURE ISLASJO, 


shore, my blood’ll be on you, Jim, and that doctor 
swab and he ran on again for awhile with curses. 
‘‘ Look, Jim, how my fingers fidges,” he continued 
in the pleading tone. “ I can’t keep ’em still, not I 
I haven’t had a drop this blessed day. That doctor’s 
a fool, I tell you. If I don’t have a drain o’ rum, 
Jim, I’ll have the horrors; I seen some on ’em 
already. I seen old Flint in the corner there, behind 
you; as plain as print, I seen him; and if I get the 
horrors, I’m a man that has lived rough, and I’ll 
raise Cain. Your doctor hisself said one glass 
wouldn’t hurt me. I’ll give you a golden guinea 
for a noggin, Jim.” 

He was growing more and more excited, and this 
aJarmed me for my father, who was very low that 
day, and needed quiet ; besides, I was reassured by 
the doctor’s words, now quoted to me, and rather 
offended by the offer of a bribe. 

“ I want none of your money,” said I, but what 
you. owe my father. I’ll get you one glass, and no 
more.” 

When I brought it to him, he seized it greedily, 
ind drank it out. 

“ Ay, ay,” said he, that’s some better, sure 
enough. And now, matey, did that doctor say how 
tong I was to lie here in this old berth ?” 

“ A week at least,” said I. 

“Thunder!” he cried. “A week! I can’t do 
that ; they’d have the black spot on me by then. 
The lubbers is going about to get the wind of me 
tnis blessed moment ; lubbers as couldn’t keep what 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


il 


they got, and want to nail what is another’s. Is 
that seamanly behavior, now, I want to know? 
But I’m a saving soul. 1 never wasted good money 
of mine, nor lost it neither ; and I’ll trick ’em again. 
I’m not afraid on ’em. I’ll shake out another reef, 
matey, and daddle ’em again.” 

As he was thus speaking, he had risen from bed 
with great diflBculty, holding to my shoulder with a 
grip that almost made me cry out, and moving his 
legs like so much dead weight. His words, spirited 
as they were in meaning, contrasted sadly with the 
weakness of the voice in which they were uttered. 
He paused when he had got into a sitting position 
on the edge. 

“That doctor’s done me,” he murmured. “My 
ears is singing. Lay me back.” 

Before I could do much to help him he had fallen 
back again to his former place, where he lay for a 
while silent. 

“ Jim,” he said, at length, “ you saw that seafaring 
man to-day!” 

“ Black Dog ?” I asked. 

“ Ah ! Black Dog,” says he. “ He^s a bad ’un ; 
but there’s worse that put him on. How, if I can’t 
get away nohow, and they tip me the black spot^ 
mind you, it’s my old sea-chest they’re after ; yoA 
get on a horse — you can, can’t you? Well, then, 
you get on a horse, and go to — well, yes, I will ! — to 
that eternal doctor swab, and tell him to pipe aU 
hands — magistrates and sich — and he’ll lay ’eta 
aboard at the ‘Admiral Benbow’ — all old Flint’s 


22 


TREASURE ISLAITD. 


creiv, man and boy, all on ’em that’s left. I vi^as 
first mate, I was, old Flint’s first mate, and I’m the 
on’y one as knows the place. He gave it me at 
Savannah, when he lay a-dying, like as if I was to 
now, you see. But you won’t peach unless they get 
the black spot on me, or unless you see that Black 
Bog again, or a seafaring man with one leg, Jim— 
him above all.” 

‘^But what is the black spot, captain?” 1 asked. 

That’s a summons, mate. I’ll tell you if they 
get that. But you keep your weather-eye open, Jim, 
and I’ll share with you equals, upon my honor.” 

He wandered a little longer, his voice growing 
weaker ; but soon after I had given him his medi- 
cine, which he took like a child, with the remark. 

If ever a seaman wanted drugs, it’s me,” he fell at 
’ast into a heavy, swoon-like sleep, in which I left 
him. What I should have done had all gone well I 
do not know. Probably I should have told the 
whole stor}^ to the doctor ; for I was in mortal fear 
lest the captain should repent of his confessions and 
make an end of me. But as things fell out, my poor 
father died quite suddenly that evening, which put 
all other matters on one side. Our natural distress, 
the visits of the neighbors, the arranging of the 
funeral, and all the work of the inn to be carried on 
in the meanwhile, kept me so busy that I had 
scarcely time to think of the captain, far less to 
be afraid of him. 

He got downstairs next morning, to be sure, and 
had his meals as usual, though he ate little, and had 


TREABXms mLAHTD, 


%% 


more, I etk afraid, than his usual supply of rum, for 
he helped himself out of the bar, scowling and blow- 
ing through his nose, and no one dared to cross him. 
On the night before the funeral he was as drunk as 
ever ; and it was shocking, in that house of mourn- 
ing to hear him singing away at his ugly old sea- 
song ; but, weak as he was, we were all in the fear 
of death for him, and the doctor was suddenly taken 
up with a case many miles away, and was never 
near the house after my father’s death. I have said 
the captain was weak ; and indeed he seemed rather 
to grow weaker than regain his strength. He 
clambered up and downstairs, and went from the 
parlor to the bar and back again, and sometimes 
put his nose out of doors to smell the sea, holding 
on to the walls as he went for support, and breathing 
hard and fast like a man on a steep mountain. He 
never particularly addressed me, and it is ray belief 
he had as good as forgotten his confidences ; but his 
temper was more flightly, and, allowing for his 
bodily weakness, more violent than ever. He had 
an alarming way now when he was drunk of drawing 
his cutlass and laying it bare before him on the 
table. But, with all that, he minded people less, 
and seemed shut up in his own thoughts and rather 
wandering. Once, for instance, to our extreme 
wonder, he piped up to a different air, a kind of 
country love-song, that he must have learned in his 
youth before he had begun to follow the sea. 

So things passed until, the day after the funeral, 
and about three o'clock of a bitter, foggy, frosty 


24 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


afternoon, 1 was standing at the door for a moment, 
full of sad thoughts about my father, when I saw 
some one drawing slowly near along the road. He 
was plainly blind, for he tapped before him with a 
stick, and wore a great green shade over his eyes 
and nose ; and he was hunched, as if with age or 
weakness, and wore a huge old tattered sea-cloak 
with a hood, that made him appear positively de- 
formed. I never saw in my life a more dreadfuh 
looking figure. He stopped a little from the inn, 
and, raising his voice in an odd sing-song, addressed 
the air in front of him : 

“Will any kind friend inform a poor blind man, 
who has lost the precious sight of his eyes in the 
gracious defense of his native country, England, and 
God bless King George ! — where or in what part of 
this country he may now be?’^ 

“ You are at the ‘ Admiral Benbow,’ Black Hill 
Cove, my good man,” said L 

“ I hear a voice,” said he — “ a young voice. Will 
you give me your hand, my kind, young friend, and 
lead me in ?” 

I held out my hand, and the horrible, soft-spoken, 
eyeless creature gripped it in a moment like a vise. 
I was so much startled that I struggled to withdraw ; 
but the blind man pulled me close up to him with a 
single action of his arm. 

“ How, boy,” he said, “ take me in to the captain.” 

“ Sir,” said I, “ upon my word I dare not.” 

“ Oh,” he sneered, “ that’s it I Take me in straight, 
w I’ll break your arm.” 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


25 


And he gave it, as he spoke, a wrench that made 
me cry out. 

“Sir,” said I, “it is for yourself I mean. The 
captain is not what he used to be. He sits with a 
drawn cutlass. Another gentleman ” 

“ Come, now, march,” interrupted he ; and I never 
heard a voice so cruel, and cold, and ugly as that 
blind man’s. It cowed me more than the pain ; and 
I began to obey him at once, walking straight in at 
the door and toward the parlor, where our sick old 
buccaneer was sitting, dazed with rum. The blind 
man clung close to me, holding me in one iron fist, 
and leaning almost more of his weight on me than I 
could carry. “ Lead me straight up to him, and 
when I’m in view, cry out, ‘ Here’s a friend for you, 
Bill.’ If you don’t, I’ll do this and with that he 
gave me a twitch that I thought would have made 
me faint. Between this and that, I was so utterly 
terrified of the blind beggar that I forgot my 
terror of the captain, and as I opened the parlor 
door, cried out the words he had ordered in a 
trembling voice. 

The poor captain raised his eyes, and at one look 
the rum went out of him, and left him staring sober. 
The expression of his face was not so much of terror 
as of mortal sickness. He made a movement to rise, 
but I do not believe he had enough force left in his 
body. 

“ How, Bill, sit where you are,” said the beggar. 
“ If I can’t see, I can hear a finger stirring. Bush 
ness is business. Hold out your left hand. Bar 


26 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


take his left hand by the wrist, and bring it near to 
my right.” 

We both obeyed him to the letter, and I saw him 
pass something from the hollow of the hand that 
held his stick into the palm of the captain’s, which 
closed upon it instantly. 

“ And now that’s done,” said the blind man ; and 
at the words he suddenly left hold of me, and, with 
incredible accuracy and nimbleness, skipped out of 
the parlor and into the road, where, as I still stood 
motionless, I could hear his stick go tap-tap-tapping 
into the distance. 

It was some time before either I or the captain 
seemed to gather our senses ; but at length, and about 
at the same moment, I released his wrist, which I 
was still holding, and he drew in his hand and looked 
sharply into the palm. 

“ Ten o’clock !” he cried. “ Six hours. We’ll do 
them yet and he sprang to his feet. 

Even as he did so, he reeled, put his hand to his 
throat, stood swaying for a moment, and then, with 
a peculiar sound, fell from his whole height face 
foremost to the floor. 

I ran to him at once, calling to my mother. But 
haste was all in vain. The captain had been struck 
dead by thundering apoplexy. It is a curious thing 
to understand, for I had certainly never liked the 
man, though of late I had begun to pity him, but as 
soon as I saw that he was dead, I burst into a flood 
of tears. It was the second death I had known, and 
the sorrow of the first was still fresh in my heart. 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


27 


CHAPTEK IV. 

THE SEA-CHEST. 

I TOST no time, of course, in telling my mother all 
that I knew, and perhaps should have told her long 
before, and we saw ourselves at once in a difficult 
and dangerous position. Some of the man’s money 
— if he had any — was certainly due to us; hut it 
was not likely that our captain’s shipmates, above 
all the two specimens seen by me, Black Dog and 
the blind beggar, would be inclined to give up their 
booty in payment of the dead man’s debts. The 
captain’s order to mount at once and ride for 
Dr. Livesey would have left my mother alone 
and unprotected, which was not to be thought of. 
Indeed, it seemed impossible for either of us to 
remain much longer in the house: the fall of coals 
in the kitchen grate, the very ticking of the clock, 
tilled us with alarms. The neighborhood, to our 
ears, seemed haunted by approaching footsteps; and 
what between the dead body of the captain on the 
parlor floor, and the thought of that detestable 
blind beggar hovering near at hand, and ready to 
return, there were moments when^ as the saying 
goes, I jumped in my skin for terror. Something 


TREASURE ISLAJTR. 


must Speedily be resolved upon ; and it occurred to 
us at last to go forth together and seek help in the 
neighboring hamlet. No sooner said than done. 
Bareheaded as we were, we ran out at once in the 
gathering evening and the frosty fog. 

The hamlet lay not many hundred yards away 
though out of view, on the other side of the next 
cove ; and what greatly encouraged me, it was in an 
opposite direction from that whence the blind man 
had made his appearance, and whither he had 
presumably returned. We were not many minutes 
on the road, though we sometimes stopped to lay 
hold of each other and hearken. But there was no 
unusual sound — nothing but the low wash of the 
ripple and the croaking of the inmates of the wood. 

It was already candle-light when we reached the 
hamlet, and I shall never forget how much I was 
cheered to see the yellow shine in doors and win- 
dows ; but that, as it proved, w’as the best of the 
help we were likely to get in that quarter. For — ^you 
would have thought men would have been ashamed 
of themselves — no soul would consent to return with 
us to the “ Admiral Benbow.” The more we told 
of our troubles, the more — man, woman, and child — 
they clung to the shelter of their houses. The name 
of Captain Flint, though it was strange to me, was 
well enough known to some there, and carried a 
great weight of terror. Some of the men who had 
been to field-work on the far side of the “ Admiral 
Benbow” remembered, besides, to have seen several 
strangers on the road. and. taking^them to be smug- 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


glers, to have bolted away ; and one at least had 
seen a little lugger in what we called Kitt’s Hole. 
For that matter, any one who was a comrade of the 
captain’s was enough to frighten them to death. 
And the short and the long of the matter was, that 
while we could get several who were willing enough 
to ride to Dr. Livesey’s, which lay in another airec- 
tion, not one would help us to defend the inn. 

They say cowardice is infectious ; but then argu- 
ment is, on the other hand, a great emboldener; 
and so when each had said his say, my mother made 
them a speech. She would not, she declared, lose 
money that belonged to her fatherless boy ; “ if 
none of the rest of you dare,” she said, Jim and I 
dare. Back we will go, the way we came, and small 
thanks to you big, hulking, chicken-hearted men. 
We’ll have that chest open, if we die for it. And 
I’ll thank you for that bag, Mrs. Crossley, to bring 
back our lawful money in.” 

Of course, I said I would go with my mother ; 
and of course they all cried out at our foolhardiness ; 
but even then not a man would go along with us. 
All they would do was to give me a loaded pistol, 
lest we were attacked ; and to promise to have 
horses ready saddled, in case we were pursued on 
our return ; while one lad was to ride forward to 
the doctor’s in search of armed assistance. 

My heart was beating finely when we two set 
forth in the cold night upon this dangerous venture. 
A full moon was beginning to rise and peered redly 
through the upper edges of the fog, and this in- 


30 


TMEASUBE ISLAND, 


creased our haste, for it was plain, before we came 
forth again, that all would be as bright as day, and 
our departure exposed to the eyes of any watchers. 
We slipped along the hedges, noiseless and swift, 
nor did we see or hear anything to increase our 
terrors, till, to our relief, the door of the “ Admiral 
Benbow ” had closed behind us. 

I slipped the bolt at once, and we stood and panted 
for a moment in the dark, alone in the house with 
the dead captain’s body. Then my mother got a 
candle in the bar, and, holding each other’s hands, 
we advanced into the parlor. He lay as we had left 
him, on his back, with his eyes open, and one arm 
stretched out. 

“ Draw down the blind, Jim,” whispered my 
mother ; “ they might come and watch outside. And 
now,” said she, when I had done so, “ we have to get 
the key off that; and who’s to touch it, I should like 
to know !” and she gave a kind of sob as she said 
the words. 

I went down on my knees at once. On the floor 
close to his hand there was a little round of paper, 
blackened on the one side. I could not doubt that 
this was the hlach spot; and taking it up, I found 
written on the other side, in a very good, clear 
hand, this short message : “You have till ten to- 
night.” 

“ He had till ten, mother,” said I ; and just as I 
said it, our old clock began striking. This sudden 
noise startled us shockingly ; but the news was good, 
for it was only six. 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


31 


‘‘ 'Now, Jim,” she said, “ that key.” 

I felt in his pockets, one after another^ A few 
small coins, a thimble, and some thread and big 
needles, a piece of pigtail tobacco bitten away at th® 
end, his gully with the cracked handle, a pocket 
compass, and a tinder box, were all that they con- 
tained, and I began to despair. 

“ Perhaps it’s round his neck,” saggested my 
mother. 

Overcoming a strong repugnance, I tore open his 
shirt at the neck, and there, sure enough, hanging 
to a bit of tarry string, which I cut with his own 
gully, we found the key. At this triumph we 
were filled with hope, and hurried upstairs, without 
delay, to the little room where he had slept so long, 
and where his box had stood since the day of his 
arrival. 

It was like any other seaman’s chest on the out- 
side, the initial “ B.” burned on the top of it with a 
liot iron, and the corners somewhat smashed and 
broken as by long, rough usage. 

“ Give me the key,” said my mother ; and though 
the lock was very stiff, she had turned it and thrown 
‘ back the lid in a twinkling. 

A strong smell of tobacco and tar rose from the 
interior, but nothing was to be seen on the top except 
a suit of very good clothes, carefuUy brushed and 
folded. The}^ had never been worn, my mother said. 
Under that, the miscellany began — a quadrant, a 
tin canikin, several sticks of tobacco, two brace of 
very handsome pistols, a piece of bar silver, an old 


32 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


Spanish watch and some other trinkets of little 
value and mostly of foreign make, a pair of com- 
passes mounted with brass, and five or six curious 
West Indian shells. I have often wondered since why 
he should have carried about these shells with him 
in his wandering, guilty, and hunted life. 

In the meantime, we had found nothing of any 
value but the silver and the trinkets, and neither of 
these were in our way. Underneath there was an 
old boat-cloak, whitened with sea-salt on many a 
harbor-bar. My mother pulled it up with im patience, 
and there lay before us, the last things in the chest, 
a bundle tied up in oilcloth, and looking like papers, 
and a canvas bag, that gave forth, at a touch, tha 
jingle of gold. 

“ril show these rogues that Pm an honest 
woman,” said my mother. “ I’ll have my dues, and 
not a farthing over. Hold Mrs. Crossley’s bag.” 
And she began to count over the amount of the 
captain’s score from the sailor’s bag into the one that 
I was holding. 

It was a long, difficult business, for the coins were 
of all countries and sizes — doubloons, and louis-d’ors, 
and guineas, and pieces of eight, and I know not 
what besides, all shaken together at random. The 
guineas, too, were about the scarcest, and it was 
with these only that my mother knew how to make 
her count. 

When we were about half way through, I sud- 
denly put my hand upon her arm ; for I had heard 
in the silent, frosty air, a sound that brought my 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


33 


heart into my mouth — the tap-tapping of the blind 
man’s stick upon the frozen road. It drew nearer 
and nearer, while we sat holding our breath. Then 
it struck sharp on the inn door, and then we could 
hear the handle being turned, and the bolt rattling 
as the wretched being tried to enter; and then 
there was a long time of silence both within and 
without. At last the tapping recommenced, and, to 
our indescribable joy and gratitude, died slowly 
awa}’’ again until it ceased to be heard. 

“Mother,” said I, “ take the whole and let’s be 
going ; ’ ’ for I was sure the bolted door must have 
seemed suspicious, and would bring the whole 
hornet’s nest about our ears ; though how thankful 
I was that I had bolted it, none could tell who had 
never met that terrible blind man. 

But my mother, frightened as she was, would not 
consent to take a fraction more than was due to 
her, and was obstinately unwilling to be content 
with less. It was not yet seven, she said, by a 
long way ; she knew her rights and she would have 
them; and she was still arguing with me, when a 
little low whistle sounded a good way otf upon the 
hill. That was enough, and more than enough, for 
both of us. 

“ITl take what I have,” she said, jumping to her 
feet. 

“ And I’ll take this to square the count,” said I, 
picking up the oilskin packet. 

Next moment we were both groping downstairs, 
leaving the candle by the empty chest ; and the next 
we had opened the door and were in full retreat. 


34 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


We had not started a moment too soon. The fog 
was rapidly dispersing; already the moon shone 
quite clear on the high ground on either side ; and 
it was only in the exact bottom of the dell and 
round the tavern door that a thin veil still hung un^ 
broken to conceal the first steps of our escape. Far 
less than halfway to the hamlet, very little beyond 
the bottom of the hill, we must come forth into the 
moonlight. Nor was this all; for the sound of 
several footsteps running came already to our ears, 
and as we looked back in their direction, a light 
tossing to and fro and still rapidly advancing, 
showed that one of the newcomers carried a 
lantern. 

^ My dear,” said my mother suddenly, “ take the 
money and run on. I am going to faint.” 

This was certainly the end for both of us, I 
thought. How I cursed the cowardice of the 
neighbors ; how I blamed my poor mother for her 
honesty and her greed, for her past foolhardiness 
and present weakness! We were just at the little 
bridge, by good fortune ; and I helped her, tottering 
as she was, to the edge of the bank, where, sure 
enough, she gave a sigh and fell on my shoulder. I 
do not know how I found the strength to do it at all, 
and I am afraid it was roughly done ; but I managed 
to drag her down the bank and a little way under 
the arch. Farther I could not move her, for the 
bridge was too low to let me do more than crawl 
below it. So there we had to stay — my mother 
almost entirely exposed, and both of us within ear 
shot of the inn. 


THEASUBE ISLAND. 


3 ^ 


CHAPTER 

THE LAST OF THE BLIND MAN. 

My curiosity, in a sense, was stronger than my 
fear ; for I could not remain where I was, but crept 
back to the bank again, whence, sheltering my head 
behind a bush of broom, I might command the road 
before our door. I was scarcely in position ere my 
enemies began to arrive, seven or eight of them, 
running hard, their feet beating out of time along 
the road, and the man with the lantern some paces 
in front. Three men ran together, hand in hand ; 
and I made out, even through the mist, that the 
middle man of this trio was the blind beggar. The 
next moment his voice showed me that I was right. 

“ Down with the door !” he cried. 

“ Ay, ay, sir !” answered two or three ; and a rush 
was made upon the “ Admiral Benbow,” the lantern- 
bearer following ; and then I could see them pause, 
and hear speeches passed in a lower key, as if they 
were surprised to find the door open. But the 
pause was brief, for the blind man again issued his 
commands. His voice sounded louder and higher, 
as if he were afire with eagerness and rage. 

“ In, in, in !” he shouted, and cursed them for 
their delay. 


TREASURE ISLAND. 




Four or five of them obeyed at once, two remain- 
ing on the road with the formidable beggar. There 
was a pause, then a cry of surprise, and then a voice 
shouting from the house : 

« Bill’s dead !” 

But the blind man swore at them again for their 
delay. 

“ Search him, some of you shirking lubbers, and 
the rest of you aloft and get the chest,” he cried. 

I could hear their feet rattling up our old stairs, 
so that the house must have shook with it. 
Promptly afterward, fresh sounds of astonishment 
arose; the window of the captain’s room was 
thrown open with a slam and a jingle of broken glass ; 
and a man leaned out into the moonlight, head and 
shoulders, and addressed the blind beggar on the 
road below him. 

“ Pew,” he cried, ‘‘ they’ve been before us. Some 
one’s turned the chest out alow and aloft.” 

“ Is it there ?” roared Pew. 

“ The money’s there.” 

The blind man cursed the money. 

“ Flint’s fist, I mean,” he cried. 

“We don’t see it here nohow,” returned the man. 

“ Here, you below there, is it on Bill?” cried the 
blind man again. 

At that, another fellow, probably him who had 
remained below to search the captain’s body, came 
to the door of the inn. “Bill’s been overhauled 
a’ready,” said he, “ nothin’ left.” 

“ It’s these people of the inn — it’s that boy. I 


TREASURE ISLAJTD. 


37 


wish I had put his eyes - out !” cried the blind man, 
Pew. “ They were here no time ago — they had 
the door bolted when I tried it. Scatter, lads, ana 
find ’em.” 

“ Sure enough, they left their glim here,” said the 
fellow from the window. 

“ Scatter and find ’em ! Pout the house out 1” 
reiterated Pew, striking with his stick upon the 
road. 

Then there followed a great to-do through all our 
old inn, heavy feet pounding to and fro, furniture 
thrown over, doors kicked in, until the very rocks 
re-echoed, and the men came out again, one after 
another, on the road, and declared that we were 
nowhere to be found. And just then the same 
whistle that had alarmed my mother and myself 
over the dead captain’s money was once more clearly 
audible through the night, but this time twice 
repeated. I had thought it to be the bfind man’s 
trumpet, so to speak, summoning his crew to the 
assault ; but I now found that it was a signal from 
the hillside toward the hamlet, and, from its effect 
upon the buccaneers, a signal to warn them of 
approaching danger. 

“ There’s Dirk again,” said one. ^ Twice ! We’ll 
have to budge, mates.” 

“ Budge, you skulk I” cried Pew. “ Dirk was a 
fool and a coward from the first— you wouldn’t 
mind him. They must be close by ; they can’t be 
far ; you have your hands on it. Scatter and look 
for them, dogs! Oh, sniver mv soul,” he cried, “if 
I had e>es^” 

r 


3b 


TEBASUBE ISLABP. 


This appeal seemed to produce some effect, for 
two of the fellows began to look here and there 
among the lumber, but half-heartedly, I thought, 
and with half an eye to their own danger all the 
time, while the rest stood irresolute on the road. 
You have your hands on thousands, you fools, 
and you hang a leg! You’d be as rich as kings if 
you could find it, and you know it’s here, and you 
stand there skulking. There wasn’t one of you 
dared face Bill, and I did it — a blind man ! And 
I’m to lose my chance for you ! I’m to be a poor, 
crawling beggar, sponging for rum, when I might 
be rolling in a coach 1 If you had the pluck of a 
weevil in a biscuit you would catch them still.” 

“ Hang it, Pew, we’ve got the doubloons !” grum- 
bled one. 

“ They might have hid the blessed thing,” said 
another. “ Take the Georges, Pew, and don’t stand 
here squalling.” 

Squalling was the word for it. Pew’s anger rose 
so high at these objections ; till at last, his passion 
completely taking the upper hand, he struck at them 
right and left in his blindness, and his stick sounded 
heavily on more than one. 

These, in their turn, cursed back at the blind 
miscreant, threatened him in horrid terms, and 
tried in vain to catch the stick and wrest it from 
his grasp. 

This quarrel was the saving of us ; for while it 
was still raging, another sound came from the top 
of the hill on the side of the hamlet — the tramp of 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


39 


horses galloping. Almost at the same time a pistol- 
shot, flash and report, came from the hedge side. 
And that was plainly the last signal of danger ; for 
the buccaneers turned at once and ran, separating 
in every direction, one seaward along the cove, one 
slant across the hill, and so on, so that in half a 
minute not a sign of them remained but Pew. Him 
they had deserted, whether in sheer panic or out of 
revenge for his ill words and blows, I know not ; 
but there he remained behind, tapping up and down 
the road in a frenzy, and groping and calling for 
his comrades. Finally he took the wrong turn, 
and ran a few steps past me, toward the hamlet, 
crying : 

Johnny, Black Dog, Dirk,” and other names, 
‘‘you won’t leave old Pew, mates — not old Pew !” 

Just then the noise of horses topped the rise, and 
four or five riders came in sight in the moonlight, 
and swept at full gallop down the slope. 

At this Pew saw his error, turned with a scream, 
and ran straight for the ditch, into which he rolled. 
But he was on his feet again in a second, and made 
another dash, now utterly bewildered, right under 
the nearest of the coming horses. 

The rider tried to save him, but in vain. Down 
went Pew with a cry that rang high into the night ; 
and the four hoofs trampled and spurned him and 
passed by. He fell on his side, then gently collapsed 
upon his face, and moved no more. 

1 leaped to my feet and hailed the riders. They 
were pulling up, at any rate, horrified at the acci 


40 


TBEASURE ISLAND. 


dent ; and I soon saw what they were. One, tailing 
out behind the rest, was a lad that had gone from 
the hamlet to Dr. Livesey’s ; the rest were revenue 
oflScers, whom he had met by the way, and with 
whom he had had the intelligence to return at 
once. Some news of the lugger in Kitt’s Hole had 
found its way to Supervisor Dance, and set him 
forth that night in our direction, and to that cir- 
cumstance my mother and I owed our preservation 
from death. 

Pew was dead, stone dead. As for my mother, 
when we had carried her up to the hamlet, a little 
cold water and salts and that soon brought her back 
again, and she was none the woise for her terror, 
though she still continued to deplore the balance of 
the money. In the meantime the supervisor rode 
on, as fast as he could, to Kitt’s Hole ; but his men 
had to dismount and grope down the dingle, leading, 
and sometimes supporting, their horses, and in con- 
tinual fear of ambushes ; so it was no great matter 
for surprise that when they got down to the Hole 
the lugger was already under way, though still close 
in. He hailed her. A voice replied, telling him to 
keep out of the moonlight, or he would get some 
lead in him, and at the same time a bullet whistled 
close by his arm. Soon after, the lugger doubled 
the point and disappeared. Mr. Dance stood there, 
as he said, “ like a fish out of water,” and all he 

could do was to despatch a man to B to warn 

the cutter. “ And that,” said he, “ is just about as 
^ood as nothing. They’ve got off clean, and there’s 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


41 


an end. Only,” he added, “I’m glad I trod on 
Master Pew’s corns for by this time he had heard 
my story. 

I went back with him to the “ Admiral Benbow,” 
and you cannot imagine a house in such a state of 
smash ; the very clock had been thrown down by 
these fellows in their furious hunt after my mother 
and myself ; and though nothing had actually been 
taken away except the captain’s money-bag and a 
little silver from the till, I could see at once that we 
were ruined. Mr. Dance could make nothing of the 
scene. 

“ They got the money, you say ? Well, then, 
Hawkins, what in fortune were they after ? More 
money, 1 suppose ?” 

“ i^^o, sir ; not money, I think,” replied 1. “ In 
fact, sir, I believe I have the thing in my breast 
pocket ; and, to tell you the truth, I should like to 
get it put in safety.” 

“ To be sure, boy ; quite right,” said he. “ I’ll 
take it, if you like.” 

“ I thought, perhaps, Dr. Livesey ” I began. 

“ Perfectly right,” he interrupted, very cheerily, 
“perfectly right — a gentleman and a magistrate. 
And, now I come to think of it, I might as well ride 
round there myself and report to him or squire. 
Master Pew’s dead, when all’s done ; not that I re- 
gret it, but he’s dead, you see, and people will 
make it out against an officer of his majesty’s 
revenue, if make it out they can. How, I’ll tell you, 
Hawkins : if you like. I’ll take you along.” 


42 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


I thanked him heartily for the offer, and we 
walked back to the hamlet where the horses were. 
By the time I had told mother of my purpose they 
were all in the saddle. 

“Dogger,” said Mr. Dance, “you have a good 
Uorse ; take up this lad behind you.” 

As soon as I was mounted, holding on to Dogger’s 
Delt, the supervisor gave the word, and the party 
struck out at a bouncing trot on the road to Dr 
Livesey’s house. 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


13 


CHAPTER YL 

THE captain’s PAPERS. 

We rode hard all the way, till we drew up before 
Dr. Livesey’s door. The house was all dark to the 
front. 

Mr. Dance told me to jump down and knock, and 
Dogger gave me a stirrup to descend by. The door 
was opened almost at once by the maid. 

“ Is Dr. Livesey in I asked. 

Ho, she said ; he had come home in the afternoon 
but had gone up to the Hall to dine and pass the 
evening with the squire. 

“ So there we go, boys,” said Mr. Dance. 

This time, as the distance was short, I did nob 
mount, but ran with Dogger’s stirrup-leather to the 
lodge gates, and up the long, leafless, moonlit 
avenue to where the white line of the Hall build- 
ings looked on either hand on great old gardens. 
Here Mr. Dance dismounted, and, taking me 
along with him, was admitted at a word into the 
house. 

The servant led us down a matted passage, and 
showed us at the end into a great library, all lined 
with bookcases and busts upon the top of them. 


#4 


TREASURE ISLAJSfD. 


where the squire and Dr. Livesey sat, pipe in hand, 
on either side of a bright fire. 

I had never seen the squire so near at hand. He 
was a tall man, over six feet high, and broad in pro- 
portion, and he had a bluff, rough-and-ready face, 
all roughened and reddened and lined in his long 
travels. His eyebrows were very black, and moved 
readily, and this gave him a look of some temper, 
not bad, you would say, but quick and high. 

“ Come in, Mr. Dance,” says he, very stately, and 
condescending. 

‘‘ Good-evening, Dance,” says the doctor, with a 
nod. “ And good-evening to you, friend Jim. 
What good wind brings you here ?” 

The supervisor stood up straight and stiff, and 
told his story like a lesson ; and you should have 
seen how the two gentlemen leaned forward and 
looked at each other, and forgot to smoke in their 
surprise and interest. When they heard how my 
mother went back to the inn. Dr. Livesey fairly 
slapped his thigh, and the squire cried ‘‘ Bravo !” 
and broke his long pipe against the grate. Long 
before it was done, Mr. Trelawney (that, you will 
remember, was the squire’s name) had got up from 
his seat, and was striding about the room, and the 
doctor, as if to hear the better, had taken off his 
powdered wig, and sat there, looking very strange 
indeed with his own close-cropped, black poll. 

At last Mr. Dance finished the story. 

“ Mr. Dance,” said the squire, “ you are a very 
noble fellow. And as for riding down that black. 


TRaASCTRE ISLAND. 


45 


Atrocious miscreant, I regard it as an act of virtue 
sir, like stamping on a cockroach. This lad Haw- 
kins is a trump, I perceive. Hawkins, will you ring 
that bell ? Mr. Dance must have some ale.” 

“And so, Jim,” said the doctor, “you have the 
thing that they were after, have you ?” 

“ Here it is, sir,” said I, and gave him the oilskin 
packet. 

The doctor looked it all over, as if his fingers were 
itching to open it ; but, instead of doing that, he put 
it quietly in the pocket of his coat. 

“ Squire,” said ke, “ when Dance has had his ale 
he must, of course, be off on his majesty’s service; 
but I mean to keep Jim Hawkins here to sleep at 
my house, and, with your permission, I propose we 
should have up the cold pie, and let him sup.” 

“ As you will, Livesey,” said the squire : “ Haw* 
kins has earned better than cold pie.” 

So a big pigeon pie was brought in and put on a 
side-table, and I made a hearty supper, for I was as 
hungry as a hawk, while Mr. Dance was further 
complimented, and at last dismissed. 

“ And now, squire,” said the doctor. 

“ And now, Livesey,” said the squire, in the same 
breath. 

“ One at a time, one at a time,” laughed Dr. Live- 
sey. “ You have heard of this Flint, I suppose ?” 

“ Heard of him !” cried the squire. “ Heard of 
him, you say ! He was the bloodthirstiest buccaneer 
that sailed. Blackbeard was a child to Flint. The 
Spaniards were so prodigiously afraid of him, that 1 


46 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


tell you, sir, I was sometimes proud he was an Eng- 
lishman. I’ve seen his topsails with these eyes, off 
Trinidad, and the cowardly son of a rum-puncheon 
that I sailed with put back — put back, sir, into Port 
of Spain.” 

“Well, I’ve heard of him myself, in England,” 
said the doctor. “ But the point is, had he money ?” 

“ Money !” cried the squire. “ Have you heard 
the story? What were these villains after but 
money ? What do they care for but money ? For 
what would they risk their rascally carcasses but 
money ?” 

“ That we shall soon know,” replied the doctor. 
“But you are so confoundedly hot-headed and ex- 
clamatory that I cannot get a word in. What I 
want to know is this : Supposing that I have here 
in my pocket some clue to where Flint buried his 
treasure, will that treasure amount to much ?” 

“Amount, sir!” cried the squire. “It will 
amount to this : if we have the clue you talk about, 
I fit out a ship in Bristol dock, and take you and 
Hawkins here along, and I’ll have that treasure if I 
search a year.” 

“Yery well,” said the doctor. “Now, then, if 
Jim is agreeable, we’ll open the packet and he 
laid it before him on the table. 

The bundle was sewn together, and the doctor 
had to get out his instrument-case, and cut the 
stitches with his medical scissors. It contained two 
things — a book and a sealed paper. 

“ First of all we’U try the book,” observed the 
doctor. 


TUEASURE ISLAND. 


47 


The squire and I were both peering over his 
shoulder as he opened it, for Dr. Livesey had kindly 
motioned me to come round from the side-table, 
where I had been eating, to enjoy the sport of the 
search. On the first page there were only some 
scraps of writing, such as a man with a pen in his 
hand might make for idleness or practice. One was 
the same as the tattoo mark, “Billy Bones his 
fancy then there was “ Mr. W. Bones, mate.” 
“Xo more rum.” “ Off Palm Key he got itt ;” and 
some other snatches, mostly single words and un- 
intelligible. I could not help wondering who it was 
that had “ got itt,” and what “ itt” was that he got. 
A knife in his back as like as not. 

“ Kot much instruction there,” said Dr. Livesey, 
as he passed on. 

The next ten or twelve pages were filled with 
a curious series of entries. There was a date at one 
end of the line and at the other a sum of mone}^, as 
in common account books ; but instead of explan- 
atory writing, only a varying number of crosses be- 
tween the two. On the 12th of June, 1745, for 
instance, a sum of seventy pounds had plainly 
become due to some one, and there was nothing but 
six crosses to explain the cause. In a few cases, to 
be sure, the name of a place would be added, as 
“ Offe Caraccas ;” or a mere entry of latitude and 
longitude, as “sixty-two degrees seventeen minutes 
twenty seconds, nineteen degrees two minutes forty 
seconds.” 

The record lasted over nearly twenty years, the 


48 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


amount of the separate entries growing larger as 
time went on, and at the end a grand total had 
been made out after five or six wrong additions, and 
these words appended, “ Bones, his pile.” 

“ I can’t make head or tail of this,” said Dr. 
Livesey. 

“The thing is as clear as noonday,” cried the 
squire. “This is the black-hearted hound’s account- 
book. These crosses stand for the names of ships or 
towns that they sank or plundered. The sums are 
the scoundrel’s share, and where he feared an 
ambiguity, you see he added something clearer. 

‘ Offe Caraccas,’ now ; you see, here was some un- 
happy vessel boarded off that coast. God help the 
poor souls that manned her — coral long ago.” 

“Right !” said the doctor. “ See what it is to be 
a traveler. Right ! And the amounts increase, you 
see, as he rose in rank.” 

There was little else in the volume but a few 
bearings of places noted in the blank leaves toward 
the end, and a table for reducing French, English, 
and Spanish moneys to a common value. 

“Thrifty man!” cried the doctor. “He wasn’t 
the one to be cheated.” 

“ And now,” said the squire, “ for the other.” 

The paper had been sealed in several places with 
a thimble by way of seal ; the very thimble, per- 
haps, that I had found in the captain’s pocket. 
The doctor opened the seals with great care, and 
there fell out the map of an island, with latitude 
and longitude, soundings, names of hills, and bays, 


Treasure island. 


49 


and inlets, and every particular that would be 
needed to bring a ship to a safe anchorage upon its 
shores. It was about nine miles long and five 
across, shaped, you might say, like a fat dragon 
standing up, and had two fine land-locked harbors, 
and a hill in the center part marked “ The Spy- 
glass.” There were several additions of a later 
date ; but, above all, three crosses of red ink — two 
on the north part of the island, one in the south- 
west, and, beside this last, in the same red ink, and 
in a small, neat hand, very different from the cap- 
tain’s tottery characters, these words : “ Bulk of 
treasure here.” 

Over on the back the same hand had written this 
further information : 

“ Tall tree, Spyglass shoulder, bearing a point to the N. of 
N.KE. 

“Skeleton Island E.S.E. and by E. 

“ Ten feet. 

“The bar silver is in the north cache; you can find it by the 
trend of the east hummock, ten fathoms south of the black 
crag with the face on it. 

“The arms are easy found, in the sand hill, N. point of 
north inlet cape, bearing E. and a quarter N. J. F.” 

That was all ; but brief as it was, and, to me, in- 
comprehensible, it filled the squire and Dr. Livesey 
with delight. 

“Livesey,” said the squire, “you will give up 
this wretched practice at once. To-morrow I start 
for Bristol. In three weeks’ time — three weeks ! — 
two weeks — ten days — we’ll have the best ship, sir, 


50 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


and the choicest crew in England. Hawkins shall 
come as cabin-boy. You’ll make a famous cabin- 
boy, Hawkins. You, Livesey, are ship’s doctor ; I 
am admiral. We’ll take Eedruth, Joyce, and 
Hunter. We’ll have favorable winds, a quick pas- 
sage, and not the least difficulty in finding the spot, 
and money to eat — to roll in — to play duck and 
drake with ever after.” 

“ Trelawney,” said the doctor, “ I’ll go with you ; 
and. I’ll go bail for it, so will Jim, and be a credit 
to the undertaking. There’s only one man I’m 
afraid of.” 

“ And who’s that ?” cried the sqaire. “ Hame the 
dog, sir !” 

“ You,” replied the doctor ; “ for you cannot hold 
your tongue. We are not the only men who know 
of this paper. These fellows who attacked the inn 
to-night — bold, desperate blades, for sure — and the 
rest who stayed aboard that lugger, and more, I 
dare say, not far off, are, one and all, through thick 
and thin, bound that they’ll get that money. We 
must none of us go alone till we get to sea. Jim 
and I shall stick together in the meanwhile : you’ll 
take Joyce and Hunter when you ride to Bristol, 
and, from first to last, not one of us must breathe a 
word of what we’ve found.” 

“ Livesey,” returned the squire, “ you are always 
in the right of it. m be as silent as the grave.” 


PART II. 


THE SEA COOL 

















TREASURE ISLAND. 


53 


CHAPTEE m 

I GO TO BRISTOL, 

It was longer than the squire imagined ere we 
were ready for the sea, and none of our first plans — 
not even Dr. Livesey’s of keeping me beside him — 
could be carried out as we intended. The doctor 
had to go to London for a physician to take charge of 
his practice ; the squire was hard at work sti Bristol ; 
and I lived on at the Hall under the charge of old 
Eedruth, the gamekeeper, almost a prisoner, but 
full of sea-dreams and the most charming antici- 
pations of strange islands and adventures. I 
brooded by the hour together over the map, all the 
details of which I well remembered. Sitting by the 
fire in the housekeeper’s room, I approached that 
island, in my fancy, from every possible direction ; I 
explored ever^ acre of* its surface; I climbed a 
thousand times to that tall hill they call the Spy- 
glass, and from the top enjoyed the most wonderful 
and changing prospects. Sometimes the isle was 
thick with savages, with whom we fought; some- 
times full of dangerous animals that hunted us ; but 
in all my fancies nothing occurred to me so strange 
and tragic as our actual adventures. 


54 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


So the weeks passed on, till one fine day there 
came a letter addressed to Dr. Livesey, with this 
addition, “ To be opened, in the case of his absence, 
by Tom Redruth, or young Hawkins.” Obeying 
this order, we found, or rather, I found — for the 
gamekeeper was a poor hand at reading anything 
but print — the following important news ; 

“ Old Anchor Inn, Bristol, March 1, 17--. 

“Dear Livesey: As I do not know whether you are at 
the Hall or still in London, I send this in double to both 
places. 

“ The ship is bought and fitted. She lies at anchor, ready 
for sea. You never imagined a sweeter schooner — a child 
might sail her — two hundred tons ; name, Hispaniola. 

“I got her through my old friend, Blandly, who has 
proved himself throughout the most surprising trump. The 
admirable fellow literally slaved in my interest, and so, I 
may say, did every one in Bristol, as soon as they got wind 
of the port we sailed for — treasure, I mean.” 

“ Redruth,” said I, interrupting the letter, “ Dr. 
Livesey will not like that. The squire has been 
talking after all.” 

“Well, who’s a better right ?” growled the game- 
keeper. “ A pretty rum go if squire ain’t to talk 
for Dr. Livesey, I should think.” 

At that I gave up all attempt at commentary, and 
read straight on : 

“ Blandly himself found the Hispaniola, and by the most 
admirable management got her for the merest trifle. There 
is a class of men in Bristol monstrously prejudiced against 
Blandly. They go the length of declaring that this honest 
creature would do anything for money, that the Hispaniola 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


55 


belonged to him, and that he sold it me absurdly high — 
the most transparent calumnies. None of them dare, how- 
ever, to deny the merits of the ship. 

‘‘So far there was not a hitch. The workpeople, to be 
sure — riggers and what not — were most annoyingly slow ; 
but time cured that. It was the crew that troubled me. 

“ I wished a round score of men — in case of natives, buc- 
caneers, or the odious French — and I had the worry of the 
deuce itself to find so much as half a dozen, till the most re- 
markable stroke of fortune brought me the very man that I 
required. 

“I was standing on the dock, when, by the merest acci- 
dent, I fell in talk with him. I found he was an old sailor, 
kept a public house, knew all the seafaring men in Bristol, 
had lost his health ashore, and wanted a good berth as cook 
to get to sea again. He had hobbled down there that morning, 
he said, to get a smell of the salt. 

“I was monstrously touched— so would you have been — 
and, out of pure pity, I engaged him on the spot to be 
ship’s cook. Long John Silver, he is called, and has lost a 
leg ; but that I regarded as a recommendation, since he lost 
it in his country’s service, under the immortal Hawke. He has 
no pension, Livesey. Imagine the abominable age we live in I 

“ Well, sir, I thought I had only found a cook, but it was 
a crew I had discovered. Between Silver and myself we got 
together in a few days a company of the toughest old salts 
imaginable — not pretty to look at, but fellows, by their 
faces, of the most indomitable spirit. I declare we could 
fight a frigate. 

“ Long John even got rid of two out of the six or seven I 
had already engaged. He shewed me in a moment that they 
were just the sort of fresh-water swabs we had to fear in an 
adventure of importance. 

“ I am in the most magnificent health and spirits, eating 
like a bull, sleeping like a tree, yet I shall not enjoy a moment 
till I hear my old tarpaulins tramping round the capstan* 


66 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


Seaward ho I Hang the treasure I It’s the glory of the sea 
that has turned my head. So now, Livesey, come post ; do 
not lose an hour, if you respect me. 

“ Let young Hawkins go at once to see his mother, with 
Redruth for a guard ; and then both come full speed to 
Bristol. 

“ John Trelawnet. 

“Postscript. — I did not tell you that Blandly, who, by the 
way, is to send a consort after us if we don’t turn up by the 
end of August, had found an admirable fellow for sailing 
master— a stiff man, which I regret, but, in all other respects, 
a treasure. Long John Silver unearthed a very competent 
man for a mate, a man named Arrow. I have a boatswain 
who pipes, Livesey ; so things shall go man-o’-war fashion on 
board the good ship Hispaniola. 

“ I forgot to tell you that Silver is a man of substance ; I 
know of my own knowledge that he has a banker’s account, 
which has never been overdrawn. He leaves his wife to 
manage the inn ,• and as she is a woman of color, a pair of old 
bachelors like you and I may be excused for guessing that it 
is the wife quite as much as the health, that sends him back 
to roving. J. T. 

“ P. P. S. — Hawkins may stay one night with his mother. 

“ J. T.” 

You can fancy the excitement into which that 
letter put me. I was half beside myself with glee ; 
and if ever I despised a man, it was old Tom Red- 
ruth, who could do nothing but grumble and 
lament. Any of the under-gamekeepers would 
gladly have changed places with him ; but such was 
not the squire’s pleasure, and the squire’s pleasure 
was like law among them all. !N*obody but old 
Redruth would have dared so much as even to 
grumble. 


TREASUBBi ISLAND, 


57 


The next morning he and I set out on foot for 
che “Admiral Benbow’,” and there I found my 
mother in good health and spirits. The captain, 
who had so long been a cause of so much dis- 
comfort, was gone where the wicked cease from 
troubling. The squire had had everythfhg repaired, 
and the public rooms and the sign repainted, and 
had added some furniture — above aU a beautiful 
ar«uchair for mother in the bar. He had found 
her a boy as an apprentice also, so that she should 
not want help while I was gone. 

It was on seeing that boy that I understood, for 
the first time, my situation. 1 had thought up to 
that moment of the adventures before me, not at all 
of the home that I was leaving ; and now, at sight 
of this clumsy stranger, who was to stay here in my 
place beside my mother, I had my first attack of 
tears. I am afraid I led that boy a dog’s life ; for 
as he was new to the \y6rk, I had a hundred oppor- 
tunities of setting him right and putting him down, 
and I was not slow to profit by them. 

The night passed, and the next day, after dinner, 
Kedruth and I were afoot again, and on the road. 
I said good-by to mother and the cove where I had 
lived since I was born, and the dear old “ Admiral 
Benbow” — since he was repainted, no longer quite 
so dear. One of my last thoughts was of the captain, 
who had so often strode along the beach with his 
cocked hat, his saber-cut cheek, and his old brass 
telescope. moment we had turned the corner, 

and my hom^ was out of sight. 


58 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


The mail picked us up about dusk at the “ Royal 
George” on the heath. I was wedged in between 
Redruth and a stout old gentleman, and in spite of 
the swift motion and the cold night air, I must have 
dozed a great deal from the very first, and then 
slept like a log up hill and down dale through stage 
after stage ; for when I was awakened, at last, it 
was by a punch in the ribs, and 1 opened my eyes, 
to find that we were standing still before a large 
building in a city street, and that the day had 
already broken a long time. 

“ Where are we I asked. 

Bristol,” said Tom. “ Get down.” 

Mr. Trelawney had taken up his residence at an 
inn far down the docks, to superintend the work 
upon the schooner. Thither we had now to walk, 
and our way, to my great delight, lay along the 
quays and beside the great multitude of ships of all 
sizes and rigs and nations. In one, sailors were 
singing at their work ; in another, there were men 
aloft, high over my head, hanging to threads that 
seemed no thicker than a spider’s- Though I had 
lived by the shore all my life, I seemed never to 
have been near the sea till then. The smell of tar 
and salt was something new. I saw the most won- 
derful figureheads, that had all been far over the 
ocean. I saw, besides, many old sailors, with rings 
in their ears, and whiskers curled in ringlets, and 
tarry pigtails, and their swaggering, clumsy sea- 
walk; and if I had seen as many kings or arch- 
bishops I could not have been more delighted. 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


59 


And I was going to sea myself; to sea in a 
schooner, with a piping boatswain, and pig-tailed 
singing seamen; to sea, bound for an unknown 
island, and to seek for buried treasures 1 

While I was still in this delightful dream, we 
came suddenly in front of a large inn, and met 
Squire Trelawney, all dressed out like a sea-oiRcer, 
in stout blue cloth, coming out of the door with a 
smile on his face, and a capital imitation of a sailor’s 
walk. 

“ Here you are,” he cried, “ and the doctor came 
last night from London. Bravo 1 the ship’s company 
complete !” 

Oh, sir,” cried I, “ when do we sail ?” 

“ Sail 1” says he. “We sail to-morrow 1” 


60 


TREASURE IsLANlf, 


CHAPTER YIIL 

AT THE SIGN OF THE SPYGLASS,” 

When I liad done breakfasting the squire gave 
me a note addressed to John Silver, at the sign of 
the ‘‘ Spyglass ” and told me I should easily find the 
place by following the line of the docks, and keep- 
ing a bright lookout for a little tavern with a large 
brass telescope for sign. I set off, overjoyed at this 
opportunity to see some more of the ships and sea- 
men, and picked my way among a great crowd of 
people and carts and bales, for the dock was now at 
its busiest, until T found the tavern in question. 

It was a bright enough little place of entertain- 
ment. The sign was newly painted ; the windows 
had neat red curtains ; the fioor was cleanly sanded. 
There was a street on each side, and an open door 
on both, which made the large, low room pretty 
clear to see in, in spite of clouds of tobacco smoke. 

The customers were mostly seafaring men ; and 
they talked so loudly that I hung at the door, 
almost afraid to enter. 

As I was waiting, a man came out of a side room, 
and, at a glance, I was sure he must be Long John. 
His left leg was cut off close by the hip, and under 


mEAtiCRE ISLAND. 


61 


the left shoulder he carried a crutch, which he man- 
aged with wonderful dexterity, hopping about upon 
it like a bird. He was very tall and strong, with a 
face as big as a ham — plain and pale, but intelligent 
and smiling. Indeed, he seemed in the most cheer- 
ful spirits, whistling as he moved about among the 
tables, with a merry word or a slap on the shoulder 
for the more favored of his guests. 

How, to tell you the truth, from the very first 
mention of Long John in Squire Trelawney’s letter, 
I had taken a fear in my mind that he might prove 
to be the very one-legged sailor whom I had 
watcbed for so long at the old “ Benbow.” But one 
look at the man before me was enough. I had seen 
the captain, and Black Hog, and the blind man Pew, 
and I thought I knew what a buccaneer was like — a 
very different creature, according to me, from this 
clean and pleasant tempered landlord. 

I plucked up courage at once, crossed the thresh- 
old, and walked right up to the man where he 
stood, propped on his crutch, talking to a customer. 

“ Mr. Silver, sir I asked, holding out the note. 

“ Yes, rny lad,” said he ; “ such is my name, to be 
sure. And who may you be?” And then as he 
saw the squire’s letter, he seemed to me to give 
something almost like a start. 

“ Oh !” said he, quite loud, and offering his hand^ 
"I see. Fou are our new cabin-boy ; pleased I am 
to see you.” 

And he took my hand in his large firm grasp. 

J usl* ^hen one of the customers at the far side. 


62 


TREASURE ISLAND 


rose suddenly and made for the door. It was close 
by him, and he was out in the street in a moment. 
But his hurry had attracted my notice, and I 
recognized him at glance. It was the tallow-faced 
man, wanting two fingers, who had come first to the 
“Admiral Benbow.” 

“ Oh,” I cried, “ stop him ! it’s Black Dog !” 

“I don’t care two coppers who he is,” cried 
Silver. “ But he hasn’t paid his score. Harry, run 
and catch him.” 

One of the others who was nearest the door 
leaped up, and started in pursuit. 

“ If he were Admiral Hawke he shall pay his 
score,” cried Silver; and then, relinquishing my 
hand — “ Who did you say he was V' he asked. 
“ Black what 

“Dog, sir,” said I. “Has Mr. Trelawney not 
told you of the buccaneers ? He was one of them.” 

“ So ?” cried Silver. “ In my house ! Ben, run 
and help Harry. One of those swabs, was he? 
Was that you drinking with him, Morgan? Step 
up here.” 

The man whom he called Morgan — an old, gray- 
haired, mahogany-faced sailor — came forward pretty 
sheepishly, rolling his quid. 

“ISTow, Morgan,” said Long John, very sternly ; 
“ you never clapped your eyes on that Black— Elacl 
Dog before, did you, now ?” 

“ Hot I, sir,” said Morgan, with a salute. 

“ You didn’t know his name, did you?” 

“ Ho, sir.” 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


63 


‘‘By the powers, Tom Morgan, it’s as good for 
you 1” exclaimed the landlord. “ If you had been 
mixed up with the like of that, you would never 
have put another foot in my house, you may lay to 
that. And what was he saying to you ?” 

“ I don’t rightly know, sir,” answered Morgan. 

“ Do you call that a head on your shoulders, or 
a blessed dead-eye?” cried Long John. “Don’t 
rightly know, don’t you I Perhaps you don’t hap 
pen to rightly know who you was speaking to, 
perhaps? Come, now, what was he jawing — 
v’yages, cap’ns, ships ? Pipe up ! What was it ?” 

“We was a-talkin’ of keel-hauling,” answered 
Morgan. 

“ Keel-hauling, was you ? and a mighty suitable 
thing, too, and you may lay to that. Get back to 
your place for a lubber, Tom.” 

And then, as Morgan rolled back to his seat, 
Silver added to me in a confidential whisper, that 
was very flattering, as I thought ; 

“ He’s quite an honest man, Tom Morgan, on’y 
stupid. And now,” he ran on again, aloud, “ let’s 
see — Black Dog ? Ko, I don’t know the name, not 
L Yet I kind of think I’ve — ^yes, I’ve seen the 
swab. He used to come here with a blind beggar, 
he used.” 

“ That he did, you may be sure,” said I. “ I 
knew that blind man, too. His name was Pew.” 

“It wasl” cried Silver, now quite excited. 
“ Pew I That were his name for certain. Ah, he 
Hooked a shark, he did 1 If we run down this Black 


64 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


Dog, now, there’ll be news for Cap’n Trelawney! 
Ben’s a good runner ; few seamen run better than 
Ben. He should run him down, hand over hand, 
by the powers 1 He talked o’ keel-hauling, did he? 
rU keel-haul him!” 

All the time he was jerking out these phrases he 
was stumping up and down the tavern on his crutch, 
slapping tables with his hand, and giving such a 
show of excitement as would have convinced an 
Old Bailey judge or a Bow Street runner. My 
suspicions had been throughly re-awakened on find- 
ing Black Dog at the “ Spyglass,” and I watched 
the cook narrowly. But he was too deep, and too 
ready, and too clever for me, and by the time the 
two men had come back out of breath, and confessed 
that they had lost the track in a crowd, and been 
scolded like thieves, I would have gone bail for the 
innocence of Long John Silver, 

“ See here, now, Hawkins,” said he, ‘‘ here’s a 
blessed hard thing on a man like me, now, ain’t it ? 
There’s Cap’n Trelawney — what’s he to think? 
Here I have this confounded son of a Dutchman 
sitting in my own house drinking of my own rum ! 
Here you comes and tells me of it plain ; and hero 
I let him give us all the slip before my blessed dead- 
lights! How, Hawkins, you do me justice with the 
cap’n. You’re a lad, you are, but you’re as smart 
as paint. I see that when you first came in. How, 
here it is : What could I do, with this old timber I 
hobble on ? When I was an A B master mariner 
I’d have come up alongside of him, hand over hand, 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


65 


and broached him to in a brace of old shakes, I 
would; but now ” 

And then, all of a sudden, he stopped, and his 
jaw dropped as though he had remembered some- 
^thing. 

“ The score !” he burst out. “ Three goes o’ rum ! 
Why, shiver my timbers, if I hadn’t forgotten my 
score !” 

And, falling on a bench, he laughed until the 
tears ran down his cheeks. I could not help joining ; 
and we laughed together, peal after peal, until the 
tavern rang again. 

“Why, what a precious old sea-calf 1 am!” he 
said at last, wiping his cheeks. You and me should 
get on well, Hawkins, for I’ll take my davy I should 
be rated ship’s boy. But, come, now, stand by to 
go about. This won’t do. Booty is dooty, mess- 
mates. I’ll put on my old cocked hat, and step 
along of you to Cap’n Trelawney, and report this 
here affair. For, mind you, it’s serious, young 
Hawkins ; and neither you nor me’s come out of it 
with what I should make so bold as to call credit, 
^lor you neither, says you ; not smart — none of the 
pair of us smart. But dash my buttons ! that was 
a good ’un about my score.” 

And he began to laugh again, and that so heartily, 
that though I did not see the joke as he did, I was 
again obliged to join him in his mirth. 

On our little walk along the quays, he made him- 
self the most interesting companion, telling me 
about the different ships that we passed by, their 
rig, tonnage, and nationality, explaining the work 


66 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


that was going forward — how one was discharging, 
another taking in cargo, and a third making ready 
for sea ; and every now and then telling me some 
little anecdote of ships or seamen, or repeating a 
nautical phrase till I had learned ^t perfectly. I 
began to see that here was one of the best of possible 
shipmates. 

When we got to the inn, the squire and Dr. Live- 
sey were seated together, finishing a quart of ale 
with a toast in it, before they should go aboard the 
schooner on a visit of inspection. 

Long John told the story from first to last, with 
a great deal of spirit and the most perfect truth. 
“ That was how it were, now, weren’t it, Hawkins 
he would say, now and again, and I could always 
bear him entirely out. 

The two gentlemen regretted that Black Dog had 
got away ; but we all agreed there was nothing to 
be done, and after he had been complimented. Long 
John took up his crutch and departed. 

“All hands aboard by four this afternoon,” 
shouted the squire, after him. 

“ Ay, ay, sir,” cried the cook, in the passage. 

“Well, squire,” said Dr. Livese}^ “I don’t put 
much faith in your discoveries, as a general thing ; 
but I will say this, John Silver suits me.” 

“The man’s a perfect trump,” declared the 
squire. 

“And now,” added the doctor, “Jim may come 
on board with us, may he not ?” 

“ To be sure he may,” says squire. “ Take your 
hat, Hawkins, and we’ll see the ship.” 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


67 


CHAPTEE IX. 

POWDER AND ARMS. 

The Hispaniola lay some way out, and we went 
under the figureheads and round the sterns of many 
other ships, and their cables sometimes grated un- 
derneath our keel, and sometimes swung above us. 
At last, however, we got alongside, and were met 
and saluted as we stepped aboard by the mate, Mr. 
Arrow, a brown old sailor, Avith earrings in his ears 
and a squint. He and the squire were very thick 
and friendly, but I soon observed that things 
were not the same between Mr. Trelawney and the 
captain. 

This last Avas a sharp-looking man, Avho seemed 
angry with everything on board, and was soon to 
teU us why, for we had hardly got down into the 
cabin when a sailor followed us. 

“ Captain Smollett, sir, axing to speak with you,” 
said he. 

“ I am always at the captain’s orders. Show him 
in,” said the squire. 

The captain, who was close behind his messenger, 
entered at once, and shut the door behind him. 


68 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


•‘Well, Captain Smollett, what have you to say ? 
All well, 1 hope ; all shipshape and seaworthy 

“ Well, sir,” said the captain, “ better speak plain, 
I believe, even at the risk of offense. I don’t like 
this cruise ; I don’t like the men ; and I don’t like 
my officer. That’s short and sweet.” 

“ Perhaps, sir, you don’t like the ship ?” inquired 
the squire, very angry, as I could see. 

“ I can’t speak as to that, sir, not having seen her 
tried,” said the captain. “She seems a clever 
craft ; more I can’t say.” 

“ Possibly, sir, you may not like your employer, 
either ?” says the squire. 

But here Dr. Livesey cut in. 

“ Stay a bit,” said he, “ stay a bit. IS’o use of such 
questions as that but to produce ill-feeling. The 
captain has said too much or he has said too little, 
and Pm bound to say that I require an explanation 
of his words. You don’t, you say, like this cruise. 
Now, why ?” 

“ I was engaged, sir, on what we called sealed 
orders, to sail this ship for that gentleman where he 
should bid me,” said the captain. “So far so 
good. But now I find that every man before the 
mast knows more than I do. I don’t call that fair, 
now, do you ?” 

“ No,” said Dr. Livesey, “ I don’t.” 

“ Next,” said the captain, “ I learn we are going 
after treasure — hear it from my own hands, mind 
you. Now, treasure is ticklish work ; I don’t like 
treasure voyages on any account; and I don’t like 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


69 


them, above all, when they are secret, and when 
(begging your pardon, Mr. Trelawney) the secret 
has been told to the parrot.” 

“ Silver’s parrot ?” asked the squire. 

“It’s a way of speaking,” said the captain. 
“ Blabbed, I mean. It’s my belief neither of you 
gentlemen know what you are about ; but I’ll tell 
you my way of it — life or death, and a close run.” 

“ That is all clear, and, I dare say, true enough,” 
replied Dr. Livesey. “We take the risk; but we 
are not so ignorant as you believe us. Next, you 
say you don’t like the crew. Are they not good 
seamen ?” 

“ I don’t like them, sir,” returned Captain Smollett. 
“ And I think I should have had the choosing of my 
own hands, if you go to that.” 

“ Perhaps you should,” replied the doctor. “ My 
friend should, perhaps, have taken you along with 
him ; but the slight, if there be one, was uninten- 
tional. And you don’t like Mr. Arrow ?” 

“ I don’t, sir. I believe he’s a good seaman ; but 
he’s too free with the crew to be a good oflBcer. A 
mate should keep himself to himself — shouldn’t 
drink with the men before the mast !” 

“ Do you mean he drinks?” cried the squire. 

“ 'No, sir,” replied the captain ; “ only that he’s 
too familiar.” 

“ Well, now, and the short and long of it, captain ?” 
asked the doctor. “ Tell us what you want.” 

“ Well, gentlemen, are you determined to go on 
this cruise ?” 


70 


TREA8UUE ISLAND. 


“ Like iron,” answered the squire. 

“ Yery good,” said the captain. “ Then, as you’ve 
heard me very patiently, saying things that I could 
not prove, hear me a few words more. They are 
putting the powder and the arms in the forehold. 
Now, you have a good place under the cabin ; why 
not put them there? — first point. Then you are 
bringing four of your own people with you, and they 
tell me some of them are to be berthed forward. 
Why not give them the berths here beside the cabin ? 
— second point.” 

“ Any more ?” asked Mr. Trelawney. 

“ One more,” said the captain. ‘‘ There’s been too 
much blabbing already.” 

“ Far too much,” agreed the doctor. 

“ I’ll tell you what I’ve heard myself,” continued 
Captain Smollet : “ that you have a map of an 
island; that there’s crosses on the map to show 
where treasure is ; and that the island lies — ” And 
then he named the latitude and longitude exactly. 

“ I never told that,” cried the squire, “ to a soul !” 

“ The hands know it, sir,” returned the captain. 

“ Livesey, that must have been you or Hawkins,” 
cried the squire. 

“ It doesn’t much matter who it was,” replied the 
doctor And I could see that neither he nor the 
captain paid much regard to Mr. Trelawney’s pro- 
testations. Neither did I, to be sure, he was so 
loose a talker ; yet in this case I believe he was 
really right, and that nobody had told the situation 
of the island. 


TREASdRE ISLAND, 


71 


“Well, gentlemen,” continued the captain, “I 
don’t know who has this map ; but I make it a 
point, it shall be kept secret even from me and Mr. 
Arrow. Otherwise I would ask you to let me 
resign.” 

“I see,” said the doctor. “You wish us to keep 
this matter dark, and to make a garrison of the 
stern part of the ship, manned with my friend’s 
own people, and provided with all the arms and 
powder on board. In other words, you fear a 
mutiny.” 

“ Sir,” said Captain Smollett, “ with no intention 
to take offense, I deny your right to put words into 
my mouth. Ho captain, sir, would be justified in 
going to sea at all if he had ground enough to say 
that. As for Mr. Arrow, I believe him throughly 
honest ; some of the men are the same ; all may be 
for what 1 know. But I am responsible for the 
ship’s safety and the life of every man Jack aboard 
of her. I see things going, as I think, not quite 
right. And I ask you to take certain precautions, 
or let me resign my berth. And that’s ail.” 

“Captain Smollett,” began the doctor, with a 
smile, “ did ever you hear the fable of the mountain 
and the mouse? You’ll excuse me, I dare say, but 
you remind me of that fable. When you came in 
here I’ll stake my wig you meant more than this.” 

“Doctor,” said the captain, “you are smart. 
When I came in here I meant to get discharged. I 
had no thought that Mr. Trelawney would hear a 
word.” 


72 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


“No more I would,” cried the squire. “ Had 
Livesey not been here I should have seen you to the 
deuce. As it is, I have heard you. I will do as you 
desire ; but I think the worse of you.” 

“That’s as you please, sir,” said the captain. 
“You’ll find I do my duty.” 

And with that he took his leave. 

“ Trelawney,” said the doctor, “ contrary to all 
my notions, I believe you have managed to get two 
honest men on board with you — that man and John 
Silver.” 

“ Silver, if you like,” cried the squire ; “ but as for 
that intolerable humbug, I declare I think his con- 
duct unmanly, unsailorly, and downright un-Eng- 
lish.” 

“ Well,” says the doctor, “ we shall see.” 

When we came on deck, the men had begun 
already to take out the arms and powder, yo-ho-ing 
at their work, while the captain and Mr. Arrow 
stood by superintending. 

The new arrangement was quite to my liking. 
The whole schooner had been overhauled ; six 
berths had been made astern, out of what had been 
the after-part of the main hold ; and this set of 
cabins was only joined to the galley and forecastle 
by a sparred passage on the port side. It had been 
originally meant that the captain, Mr. Arrow, 
Hunter, Jo^^ce, the doctor and the squire, were to 
occupy these six berths. Now, Kedruth and I were 
to get two of them, and Mr. Arrow and the captain 
were to sleep on deck in the companion, which had 


TREAtiCrRE ISLAND. 


73 


been enlarged on each side till you might almost 
have called it a round-house. Yery low it was 
still, of course ; but there was room to swing two 
hammocks, and even the mate seemed pleased with 
the arrangement. Even he, perhaps, had been 
doubtful as to the crew, but that is only guess ; for, 
as you shall hear, we had not long the benefit of his 
opinion. 

We were all hard at work, changing the powder 
and the berths, when the last man or two, and 
Long John along with them, came off in a shore- 
boat. 

The cook came up the side like a monkey for 
cleverness, and, as soon as he saw what was doing, 
“ So ho, mates !” sa^^s he, “ what’s this ?” 

“ We’re a-changing of the powder. Jack,” answers 
one. 

“Why, by the powers,” cried Long John, “if we 
do, we’ll miss the morning tide !” 

“ My orders !” said the captain shortly. “ You 
may go below, my man. Hands will want supper.” 

“ Ay, ay, sir,” answered the cook ; and, touching 
his forelock, he disappeared at once in the direction 
of his galley. 

“ That’s a good man, captain,” said the doctor. 

“Yery likely, sir,” replied Captain Smollett. 
“Easy with that, men — easy,” he ran on, to thefeh 
lows who were shifting the powder ; and then sud- 
denly observing me examining the swivel we carried 
amidships, a long brass nine — “ Here, you ship’s 
doy,” he cried, “ out o’ that ! Off with you to the 
cook and get some work,” 


74 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


And then as I was hurrying off I heard him say, 
quite loudly, to the doctor : 

“ I’ll have no favorites on my ship.” 

I assure you I was quite of the squire’s way of 
thinking, and hated the captain deeply. 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


75 


CHAPTEK X. 

THE VOYAGE. 

All that night we were in a great bustle getting 
things stowed in their place, and boatfuls of the 
squire’s friends, Mr. Blandly and the like, coming 
off to wish him a good voyage and a safe return. 
We never had a night at the “Admiral Benbow” 
when I had half the work; and I was dog-tired 
when, a little before dawn, the boatswain sounded 
his pipe, and the crew began to man the capstan- 
bars. I might have been twice as weary, yet I 
would not have left the deck ; all was so new and 
interesting to me — the brief commands, the shrill 
note of the whistle, the men bustli ng to their places 
in the glimmer of the ship’s lanterns. 

“Xow, Barbecue, tip us a stave,” cried one 
voice. 

“ The old one,” cried another. 

“ Ay, ay, mates,” said Long John, who was 
standing by, with his crutch under his arm, and 
at once broke out in the air and words I knew so 
well: 


“ Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest. 


76 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


And then the whole crew bore chorus: 

“ Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum I” 

And at the third “ ho drove the bars before them 
with a will. 

Even at that exciting moment it carried me back 
to the old “ Admiral Benbow ” in a second ; and I 
seemed to hear the voice of the captain piping in 
the chorus. But soon the anchor was short up ; 
soon it was hanging dripping at the bows ; soon the 
sails began to draw, and the land and shipping to 
flit by on either side ; and before I could lie down 
to snatch an hour of slmnber the Hispaniola had 
begun her voyage to the Isle of Treasure. 

I am not going to relate that voyage in detail. 
It was fairly prosperous. The ship proved to be a 
good ship, the crew were capable seamen, and 
the captain thoroughly understood his business. 
But before we came the length of Treasure Island, 
two or three things had happened which require to 
be known. 

Mr. Arrow, flrst of all, turned out even worse 
than the captain had feared. He had no command 
among the men, and people did what they pleased 
with him. But that was by no means the worst of 
it ; for after a day or two at sea he began to appear 
on deck with hazy eyes, red cheeks, stuttering 
tongue, and other marks of drunkenness. Time 
after time he was ordered below in disgrace. 
Sometimes he fell and cut himself ; sometimes he 
lay all day long in his little bunk at one side of 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


77 


ihe companion ; sometimes for a day or two he 
would be almost sober and attend to his work at 
least passably. 

In the meantime, we could never make out where 
he got the drink. That was the ship’s mystery. 
Watch him as we pleased, we could do nothing to 
solve it ; and when we asked him to his face, he 
would only laugh, if he were drunk, and if he were 
sober, deny solemnly that he ever tasted anything 
but water. 

He was not only useless as an officer, and a bad 
influence among the men, but it was plain that at 
this rate he must soon kill himself outright; so no- 
body was much surprised, nor very sorry, when 
one dark night, with a head sea, he disappeared 
entirely and was seen no more. 

‘‘Overboard!” said captain. “ Well, gentlemen, 
that saves the trouble of putting him in irons.” 

But there we were, without a mate ; and it was 
necessary, of course, to advance one of the men. 
The boatswain. Job Anderson, was the likeliest 
man aboard, and, though he kept his old title, he 
served in a way as mate. Mr. Trelawney had 
followed the sea, and his knowledge made him very 
useful, for he often took a watch himself in easy 
weather. And the coxswain, Israel Hands, was a 
careful, wily, old, experienced seaman, who could 
be trusted at a pinch with almost anything. 

He was a great confidant of Long John Silver, 
and so the mention of his name leads me on to 
speak of our ship’s cook, Barbecue, as the men 
called him* 


78 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


Aboard ship he carried his crutch by a lanyard 
round his neck, to have both hands as free as 
possible. It was something to see him wedge the 
foot of the crutch against a bulkhead, and, propped 
against it, yielding to every movement of the ship, 
get on with his cooking like some one safe ashore. 
Still more strange was it to see him in the heaviest of 
weather cross the deck. He had a line or two 
rigged up to help him across the widest spaces — 
Long John’s earrings, they were called ; and he 
would hand himself from one place to another, now 
using the crutch, now trailing it alongside by the 
lanyard, as quickly as another man could walk. 
Yet some of the men who had sailed with him before 
expressed their pity to see him so reduced. 

“ He’s no common man. Barbecue,” said the cox- 
swain to me. “He had good schooling in his 
young days, and can speak like a book when so 
minded ; and brave — a lion’s nothing alongside of 
Long John ! I seen him grapple four, and knock 
their heads together — him unarmed.” 

All the crew respected and even obeyed him. 
He had a way of talking to each, and doing every- 
body some particular service. To me he was un- 
weariedly kind ; and always glad to see me in the 
galley, which he kept as clean as a new pin ; the 
dishes hanging up burnished, and his parrot in a 
cage in one corner. 

“ Come away, Hawkins,” he would say ; “ come 
and have a yarn with John. Hobody more welcome 
than yourself, my son. Sit you down and hear the 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


79 


news. Here’s Cap’n Flint — I calls my parrot Cap’n 
Flint after the famous buccaneer — here’s Cap’n 
Flint predicting success to our v’yage. Wasn’t you, 
cap’n ?” 

And the parrot would say, with great rapidity : 
“ Pieces of eight ! pieces of eight ! pieces of eight !” 
till you wondered that it was not out of breath, or 
till John threw his handkerchief over the cage. 

“ How, that bird,” he would say, “ is, may be, two 
hundred years old, Hawkins — they lives forever 
mostly ; and if anybody’s seen more wickedness, it 
must be the devil himself. She’s sailed with Eng- 
land, the great Cap’n England, the pirate. She’s 
been at Madagascar, and at Malabar, and Surinam, 
and Providence, and Porto bello. She was at the 
fishing up of the wrecked plate ships. It’s there she 
learned ‘ Pieces of eight,’ and little wonder ; three 
hundred and fifty thousand of ’em, Hawkins ! She 
was at the boarding of the Viceroy of the Indies out 
of Goa, she was ; and to look at her you would think 
she was a babby. But you smelt powder — didn’t 
you, cap’n?” 

“ Stand by to go about,” the parrot would scream. 

“ Ah, she’s a handsome craft, she is,” the cook 
would say, and give her sugar from his pocket, and 
then the bird would peck at the bars and swear 
straight on, passing belief for wickedness. “ There,” 
John would add, “ you can’t touch pitch and not be 
mucked, lad. Here’s this poor old innocent bird 
o’ mine swearing blue fire, and none the wiser, you 
iniiy lay to that. She would swear the same, in a 


80 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


manner of speaking, before chaplain.” And John 
would touch his forelock with a solemn way he had, 
that made me think he was the best of men. 

In the meantime, the squire and Captain Smollett 
w^ere still on pretty distant terms with one another. 
The squire made no bones about the matter; he 
despised the captain. The captain, on his part, 
never spoke but when he was spoken to, and then 
sharp and short and dry, and not a Avord wasted. 
He owned, when driven into a corner, that he 
seemed to have been wrong about the crew, that 
some of them were as brisk as he wanted to see, and 
all had behaved fairly well. As for the ship, he had 
taken a downright fancy to her. “ She’U lie a point 
nearer the wind than a man has a right to expect of 
his own married wife, sir. But,” he would add, 
“ all I say is we’re not home again, and I don’t like 
the cruise.” 

The squire, at this, would turn away and march 
up and down the deck, chin in air. 

“ A trifle more of that man,” he would say, “ and 
1 shall explode.” 

We had some heavy weather, which only proved 
the qualities of the Hispaniola. Every man on board 
seemed well content, and they must have been hard 
to please if they had been otherwise ; for it is ray 
belief there was never a ship’s company so spoiled 
since Hoah put to sea. Double grog was going on 
the least excuse ; there was duff on odd days, as, for 
instance, if the squire heard it was any man’s birth- 
day ; and always a barrel of apples standing 


TREA(5URE island. 


81 


broached in the waist, for any one to help himself 
that had a fancy. 

‘‘ Never knew good come of it yet,” the captain 
said to Dr. Livesey. “ Spoil foc’s’le hands, make 
devils. That’s my belief.” 

But good did come of the apple barrel, as you 
shall hear ; for if it had not been for that, we should 
have had no note of warning, and might all have 
perished by the hand of treachery. 

This was how it came about. 

We had run up the trades to get the wind of the 
island we were after — I am not allowed to be more 
plain — and now we were running down for it with 
a bright lookout day and night. It was about the 
last day of our outward voyage, by the largest com- 
putation ; sometime that night, or, at latest, before 
noon of the morrow, we should sight the Treasure 
Island. We were heading S.S.W., and had a steady 
breeze abeam and a quiet sea. The Hispaniola 
rolled steadily, dipping her bowsprit now and then 
with a whiff of spray. All was drawing alow and 
aloft ; every one was in the bravest spirits, because 
we were now so near an end of the first part of our 
adventure. 

Now, just after sundown, when all my work was 
over, and I was on my way to my berth, it occurred 
to me that I should like an apple. I ran on deck. 
The watch was all forward looking out for the 
island. The man at the helm was watching the luff 
of the sail, and whistling away gently to himself ; 
and that was the only sound excepting the swish of 


82 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


the sea against the bows and around the sides of 
ship. 

In I got bodily into the apple barrel, and found 
there was scarce an apple left ; but, sitting down 
there in the dark, what with the sound of the 
waters and the rocking movement of the ship, I had 
either fallen asleep, or was on the point of doing so, 
when a heavy man sat down with rather a clash 
close by. The barrel shook as he leaned his shoul- 
ders against it, and I was just about to jump up 
when the man began to speak. It was Silver’s 
voice, and, before I had heard a dozen words, I 
would not have shown myself for all the world, but 
lay there, trembling and listening, in the extreme 
of fear and curiosity ; for from these dozen words I 
understood that the lives of all the honest men 
aboard depended upon me alone. 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


83 


CHAPTEE XL 

WHAT I HEARD IN THE APPLE BARBEL. 

No, NOT I,” said Silver. “ Flint was cap’n ; I 
was quartermaster, along of my timber leg. The 
same broadside I lost my leg, old Pew lost his dead- 
lights. It was a master surgeon, him that ampy- 
tated me — out of college and all — Latin by the 
bucket, and what not ; but he was hanged like a 
dog, and sun-dried like the rest, at Corso Castle. 
That was Eoberts’ men, that was, and corned of 
changing names to their ships — Eoyal Fortune and 
so on. Xow, what a ship was christened, so let her 
stay, I says. So it was with the Cassandra, as 
brought us all safe home from Malabar, after Eng- 
land took the Viceroy of the Indies; so it was 
(With the old Walrus, Flint’s old ship, as I’ve seen 
a-muck with the red blood and fit to sink with 
gold.” 

“ Ah !” cried another voice, that of the youngest 
hand on board, and evidently full of admiration, “ he 
was the flower of the flock, was Flint !” 

“Davis was a man, too, by all accounts,” said 
Silver. “ I never sailed along of him ; first with 
England, then with Flint, that’s my story ; and now 


84 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


here on ray own account, in a manner of speaking. 
I laid by nine hundred safe, from England, and two 
thousand after Flint. That ain’t bad for a man 
before the mast — all safe in bank. ’Tain’t earning 
now, it’s saving does it, you may lay to that. 
Where’s all England’s men now ? I dunno. 
Where’s Flint’s? Why, most on ’em aboard here, 
and glad to get the duff — been begging before that, 
some on ’em. Old Pew, as had lost his sight, and 
might have thought shame, spends twelve hundred 
pound in a year, like a lord in Parliament. Where is 
he now ? Well, he’s dead now and under hatches ; 
but for two year before that, shiver my timbers ! 
the man was starving. He begged, and he stole, 
and he cut throats, and starved at that, by the 
powers !” 

“Well, it ain’t much use, after all,” said the young 
seaman. 

“ ’Tain’t much use for fools, you may lay to it — 
that, nor nothing,” cried Silver. “ But now, you 
look here : you’re young, you are, but you’re as 
smart as paint. I see that when I set my eyes on 
you, and I’ll talk to you like a man.” 

You may imagine how I felt when I heard this 
abominable old rogue addressing another in the very 
same words of flattery as he had used to myself. I 
think, if I had been able, that I would have killed 
him through the barrel. Meantime, he ran on, 
little supposing he was overheard. 

“ Here it is about gentlemen of fortune. They 
lives rough, and they risk swinging, but they eat 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


85 


and drink like fighting-cocks, and when a cruise is 
done, why, it’s hundreds of pounds instead of 
hundreds of farthings in their pockets. Now, the 
most goes for rum and a good fling, and to sea 
again in their shirts. But that’s not the course I 
lay. I puts it all away, some here, some there, 
and none too much anywheres, by reason of sus- 
picion. I’m fifty, mark you ; once back from this 
cruise, I set up gentleman in earnest. Time 
enough, too, says you. Ah, but I’ve lived easy in 
the meantime; never denied myself o’ nothing 
heart desires, and slep’ soft and ate dainty all my 
days, but when at sea. And how did I begin ? 
Before the mast, like you I” 

“ Well,” said the other, “ but all the other money’s 
gone now, ain’t it? You daren’t show face in 
Bristol after this.” 

“ Why, where might you suppose it was ?” asked 
Silver derisively. 

“ At Bristol, in banks and places,” answered his 
companion. 

“ It were,” said the cook ; “ it were when we 
weighed anchor. But my old missis has it all by 
now. And the “ Spyglass ” is sold, lease and good- 
will and rigging ; and the old girl’s off to meet me. 
I would tell you where, for I trust you ; but it ’ud 
make jealousy among the mates.” 

“ And can you trust your missis ?” asked the 
other. 

“Gentlemen of fortune,” returned the cook, 
“ usually trusts little among themselves, and right 


86 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


they are, you may lay to it. But I have a way 
with me, I have. When a mate brings a slip on his 
cable — one as knows me, I mean — it won’t be in 
the same world with old John. There was some 
that was feared of Pew, and some that was feared of 
Flint ; but Flint his own self was feared of me. 
Feared he was, and proud. They was the roughest 
crew afloat, was Flint’s ; the devil himself would 
have been feared to go to sea with them. Well, 
now, I tell you. Pm not a boasting man, and you 
seen yourself how easy I keep company ; but when 
I was quartermaster, larribs wasn’t the word for 
Flint’s old buccaneers. Ah, you may be sure of 
yourself in old John’s ship.” 

“Well, I tell you now,” replied the lad, “I didn’t 
half a quarter like the job till I had this talk with 
you, John; but there’s my hand on it now.” 

“ And a brave lad you were, and smart, too,” 
answered Silver, shaking hands so heartily that all 
the barrel shook, “and a finer figurehead for a 
gentleman of fortune I never clapped my eyes on.” 

By this time I had begun to understand the mean- 
bg of their terms. By a “ gentleman of fortune ” 
they plainly meant neither more nor less than a 
common pirate, and the little scene that 1 had over- 
heard was the last act in the corruption of one of 
the honest hands — perhaps of the last one left 
aboard. But on this point I was soon to be relieved, 
for Silver giving a little whistle, a third man 
oiled up and sat down by the party. 

^ Dick’s square,” said Silver. 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


87 


“Oh, I know’d Dick was square,” returned the 
7oice of the coxswain, Israel Hands. “ He’s no fool, 
is Dick.” And he turned his quid and spat. “ But, 
look here,” he went on, “ here’s what I want to 
know. Barbecue : how long are we a-going to stand 
off and on like a blessed bumboat ? I’ve had a’most 
enough of Cap’n Smollett; he’s hazed me long 
enough, by thunder ! I want to go into that cabin, 
1 do. I want their pickles and wines, and that.” 

“Israel,” said Silver, “your head ain’t much 
account, nor ever was. But you’re able to hear, I 
reckon ; leastways, your ears is big enough. How, 
here’s what I say : you’ll berth forward, and you’U 
live hard, and you’U speak soft, and you’ll keep 
sober, till I give the word ; and you may lay to 
that, my son.” 

“WeU, I don’t say no, do I?” growled the cox- 
swain. “ What I say is, when ? That’s what I 
say.” 

“When! by the powers!” cried SUver. “WeU, 
now, if you want to know. I’ll tell you when. The 
last moment I can manage ; and that’s when. 
Here’s a first-rate seaman, Cap’n Smollett, sails the 
blessed ship for us. Here’s this squire and doctor 
with a map and such — I don’t know where it is, do 
I ? Ho more do you, says you. WeU, then, I mean 
this squire and doctor shall find the stuff, and help 
us to get it aboard, by the powers. Then we’U 
see. If I was sure of you aU, sons of double Dutch- 
men, I’d have Cap’n Smollett navigate us halfway 
back again before I struck.” 


88 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


« Why, we’re all seamen aboard here, I should 
think,” said the lad Dick. 

“We’re all foc’s’le hands, you mean,” snapped 
Silver. “We can steer a course, but who’s to set 
one ? That’s what all you gentlemen split on, first 
and last. If I had my way, I’d have Cap’n Smollett 
work us back into the trades at least ; then we’d 
have no blessed miscalculations and a spoonful of 
water a day. But I know the sort you are. I’ll 
finish with ’em at the island, as soon’s the blunt’s 
on board, and a pity it is. But you’re never happy 
till you’re drunk. Split my sides, I’ve a sick heart 
to sail with the likes of you !” 

“ Easy all, Long John,” cried Israel. “ Who’s 
a-crossin’ of you 

“ Why, how many tall ships, think ye, now, have 
I seen laid aboard ? and how many brisk lads 
drying in the sun at Execution Dock?” cried Silver, 
“ and all for this same hurry and hurry and hurry. 
You hear me ? I seen a thing or two at sea, I have. 
If you would o’ny lay your course, and a p’int to 
windward, you would ride in carriages, you would. 
But not you! I know you. You’ll have your 
mouthful of rum to-morrow, and go hang.” 

“ Everybody know’d you was a kind of a chapling, 
John ; but there’s others as could hand and steer as 
well as you,” said Israel. “They liked a bit o’ 
fun, they did. They wasn’t so high and dry no- 
how, but took their fling, like jolly companions every 
one.” 

“So?” says Silver. “Well, and where are they 


TREASUHK ISLAND 


89 


now i Pew was that sort, and he died a beggar-man. 
Flint was, and he died of rum at Savannah. Ah, 
they was a sweet crew, they was ! on’y, where are 
they 

“ But,” asked Dick, “ when we do lay ’em athwart, 
what are we to do with ’em, anyhow ?” 

“ There’s the man for me !” cried the cook, ad- 
miringly. “That’s what I call business. Well, 
what would you think ? Put ’em ashore like 
maroons ? That would have been England’s way. 
Or cut ’em down like that much pork ? That would 
have been Flint’s or Billy Bones’ .P 

“ Billy was the man for that,” said Israel. “ ‘ Dead 
men don’t bite,’ says he. Well, he’s dead now his- 
self ; he knows the long and short on it now ; 
and if ever a rough hand come to port, it was 
Billy.” 

“ Bight you are,” said Silver, “ rough and ready. 
But mark you here : I’m an easy man — I’m quite 
the gentleman, says you ; but this time it’s serious. 
Dooty is dooty, mates. I give my vote — death. 
When I’m in Parlyment, and riding in my coach, I 
don’t want none of these sea-lawyers in the cabin 
a-coming home, unlooked for, like the devil at 
prayers. Wait is what I say ; but when the time 
comes, why let her rip !” 

“John,” cries the coxswain, “you’re a man!” 

‘ You’ll say so, Israel, when you see,” said Silver. 
OnW one thing I claim — I claim Trelawney. I’ll 
wring his calfs head off his bo^ly with these hands. 
iJick !” he added, breaking off, “you just jump up, 


90 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


like a sweet lad, and get me an apple, to wet 
pipe like.” 

You may fancy the terror I was in ! I should 
have leaped out and run for it, if I had found the 
strength ; but my limbs and heart alike misgave me, 
I heard Dick begin to rise, and then some one seem- 
ingly stopped him, and the voice of Hands ex- 
claimed : 

“ Oh, stow that ! Don’t you get sucking of that 
bilge, John. Let’s have a go of the rum.” 

“Dick,” said Silver, “I trust you. I’ve a gauge 
on the keg, mind. There’s the key ; you fill a pan- 
nikin and bring it up.” 

Terrified as I was, I could not help thinking to 
myself that this must have been how Mr. Arrow got 
the strong waters that destroyed him. 

Dick was gone but a little while, and during his 
absence Israel spoke straight on in the cook’s ear. 
It was but a word or two that I could catch, and 
yet I gathered some important news ; for, besides 
other scraps that tended to the same purpose, this 
whole clause was audible: “Hot another man of 
them ’ll jine.” Hence there were still faithful men 
on board. 

When Dick returned, one after another of the 
trio took the pannikin and drank — one “ To luck 
another with a “ Here’s to old Flint and Silver 
himself saying, in a kind of song, “ Here’s to our- 
selves, and hold your lutf, plenty of prizes and 
plenty of duff.” 

Just then a sort of brightness fell upon me in the 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


91 


barrel, and, looking up, I found the moon had 
risen, and T^as silvering the mizzen-top and shining 
white on the luff of the foresail ; and almost at the 
same time the voice of the lookout shouted, “ Land 
hoi” 


92 


TREA8UBE ISLAND. 


CHAPTEE XIL 

COUNCIL OF WAR. 

There was a great rush of feet across the deck. 
I could hear people tumbling up from the cabin and 
the foc’s’le ; and, slipping in an instant outside my 
barrel, I dived behind the foresail, made a double 
toward the stern, and came out upon the open deck 
in time to join Hunter and Dr. Livesey in the rush 
for the weather bow. 

There all hands were already congregated. A 
belt of fog had lifted almost simultaneously with 
the appearance of the moon. Away to the south- 
west of us we saw two low hills, about a couple of 
miles apart, and rising behind one of them a third 
and higher hill, whose peak was still buried in the 
fog. All three seemed sharp and conical in figure. 

So much I saw, almost in a dream, for I had not 
yet recovered from my horrid fear of a minute or 
two before. And then I heard the voice of Captain 
Smollett issuing orders. The Hispaniola was laid a 
couple of points nearer the wind, and now sailed a 
course that would just clear the island on the east. 

“ And now, men,’’ said the captain, when ail was 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


93 


sheeted home, “ has any one of you ever seen that 
land ahead 

I have, sir,” said Silver. I’ve watered there 
with a trader I was cook in.” 

The anchorage is on the south, behind an islet, 
I fancy ?” asked the captain. 

Yes, sir; Skeleton Island they calls it. It were 
a main place for pirates once, and a hand we had on 
board knowed all their names :^or it. That hill to 
the noi^ard they calls the Foremast Hill; there are 
three hills in a row running south’ard — fore, main 
and mizzen, sir. But the main — that’s the big ’un, 
with the cloud on it — they usually calls the Spy- 
glass, by reason of a lookout they kept when they 
was in the anchorage cleaning ; for it’s there they 
cleaned their ships, sir, asking your pardon.” 

“ I have a chart here,” says Captain Smollett. 
“ See if that’s the place.” 

Long John’s eyes burned in his head as he took 
the chart ; but, by the fresh look of the paper, I 
knew he was doomed to disappointment. This was 
not the map we found in Billy Bones’ chest, but an 
accurate copy, complete in all things — names and 
heights and soundings — with the single exception of 
the red crosses and the written notes. Sharp as 
must have been his annoyance. Silver had the 
strength of mind to hide it. 

“Yes, sir,” said he, “this is the spot to be sure; 
and ^ery prettily drawed out. Who might have 
done that, I wonder ? The pirates were too ignorant, 
I reckon. Ay, here it is : ‘ Capt. Kidd’s Anchorage ^ 


94 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


— ^just the name my shipmate called it. There’s a 
strong current runs along the south, and then away 
nor’ard up the west coast. Eight you was, sir,” 
says he, “ to haul your wind and keep the weather 
of the island. Leastways, if such was your inten- 
tion as to enter and careen, and there ain’t no bet- 
ter place for that in these waters.” 

“Thank you, my man,” says Captain Smollett. 
“I’ll ask you, later on, to give us a help. You may 
go.” 

I was surprised at the coolness with which John 
avowed his knowledge of the island; and I own I 
was half-frightened when I saw him drawing nearer 
to myself. He did not know, to be sure, that I had 
overheard his council from the apple barrel, and yet 
I had, by this time, taken such a horror of his 
cruelty, duplicity and power, that I could scarce 
conceal a shudder when he laid his hand upon my 
arm. 

“ Ah,” says he, “ this here is a sweet spot, this 
island — a sweet spot for a lad to get ashore on. 
You’ll bathe, and you’ll climb trees, and you’ll hunt 
goats, you will ; and you’ll get aloft on them hills 
like a goat yourself. Why, it makes me young 
again. I was going to forget my timber leg, I was. 
It’s a pleasant thing to be young, and have ten toes, 
and you may lay to that. When you want to go a 
bit of exploring, you just ask old John, and he’d 
put up a snack for you to take along.” 

And clapping me in the friendliest way upon the 
shoulder, he hobbled off forward, and went below. 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


95 


Captain Smollett, the squire, and Dr. Livesey were 
talking together on the quarter-deck, and, anxious 
as I was to tell them my story, I durst not interrupt 
them openly. While I was still casting about in 
my thoughts to find some probable excuse, Dr. 
Livesey called me to his side. He had left his pipe 
below, and being a slave to tobacco, had meant 
that I should fetch it ; but as soon as I was near 
enough to speak and not to be overheard, I broke 
out immediately : “ Doctor, let me speak. Get 
the captain and squire down to the cabin, and then 
make some pretense to send for me. I have terrible 
news.” 

The doctor changed countenance a little, but next 
moment he was master of himself. 

“ Thank you, Jim,” said he, quite loudly, “ that 
was all I wjinted to know,” as if he had asked me a 
question. 

And with that he turned on his heel and rejoined 
the other two. They spoke together for a little, 
and though none of them started, or raised his voice, 
or so much as whistled, it was plain enough that 
Dr. Livesey had communicated my request ; for the 
next thing that I heard was the captain giving an 
order to Job Anderson, and all hands were piped on 
deck. 

“ My lads,” said Captain Smollett, “ IVe a word 
to say to you. This land that we have sighted is 
the place we have been sailing for. Mr. Trelawney, 
being a very open-handed gentleman, as we all 
know, has just asked me a word or two, and as I 


96 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


was able to tell him that every man on board had 
done his duty, alow and aloft, as I never ask to see 
it done better, why, he and I and the doctor are 
going below to the cabin to drink your health and 
luck, and you’ll have grog served out for you to drink 
our health and luck. I’ll tell you what I think of 
this : I think it handsome. And if you think as I 
do, you’ll give a good sea cheer for the gentleman 
that does it.” 

The cheer followed — that was a matter of course ^ 
but it rang out so full and hearty, that I confess I 
could hardly believe these same men were plotting 
for our blood. 

“ One more cheer for Cap’n Smollett,” cried Long 
John, when the first had subsided. 

And this also was given with a will. 

On the top of that the three gentlemen went be- 
low, and not long after, word was send forward that 
Jim Hawkins was wanted in the cabin. 

I found them all three seated round the table, a 
bottle of Spanish wine and some raisins before them, 
and the doctor smoking away, with his wig on his 
lap, and that, 1 knew, was a sign that he vvas agitated. 
The stern window was open, for it was a warm night, 
and you could see the moon shining behind on the 
ship’s wake. 

“JSTow, Hawkins,” said the squire, ‘‘you have 
something to say. Speak up.” 

I did as I was bid, and as short as I could make 
it, told the whole details of Silver’s conversation. 
Nobody interrupted me till I was done, nor did any 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


97 


one of the three of them make so much as a move- 
ment, but they kept their eyes upon my face from 
first to last. 

“Jim,” said Dr. Livesey, “take a seat.” 

And they made me set down at table beside them, 
poured me out a glass of wine, filled my hands with 
raisins, and all three, one after the other, and each 
with a bow, drank my good health, and their service 
to me, for my luck and courage. 

“ Now, captain,” said the squire, “ you were 
right, and I was wrong. I own myself an ass, and 
I await your orders.” 

“No more an ass than I, sir,” returned the cap- 
tain. “ I never heard of a crew that meant to mu- 
tiny but what showed signs before, for any man 
that had an eye in his head to see the mischief and 
take steps according. But this crew,” he added, 
“ beats me.” 

“ Captain,” said the doctor, “ with your permis* 
sion, that Silver’s a very remarkable man.” 

“ He’d look remarkably well from a yard-arm, sir,” 
returned the captain. “ But this is talk ; this don’t 
lead to anything. I see three or four points, and 
with Mr. Trelawney’s permission I’ll name them.” 

“ You, sir, are the captain. It is for you to speak,” 
says Mr. Trelawney grandly. 

“First point,” began Mr. Smollett. “We must go 
on, because we can’t turn back. If I gave the word 
to go about, they would rise at once. Second point, 
we have time before us — at least, until this treasure’s 
found. Third point, there are faithful hands. Now, 


98 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


sir, it’s got to come to blows sooner or later ; and 
what I propose is, to take time by the forelock, as 
the saying is, and come to blows some fine day when 
they least expect it. We can count, I take it, on 
your own home servants, Mr. Trelawney 

“ As upon myself,” declared the squire. 

“ Three,” reckoned the captain, “ ourselves make 
seven, counting Hawkins, here. How, about the 
honest hands ?” 

Most likely Trelawney’s own men,” said the doc- 
tor ; ‘‘ those he had picked up for himself before he 
lit on Silver.” 

“ Hay,” replied the squire. “ Hands was one of 
mine.” 

“ I did think I could have trusted Hands,” addea 
the captain. 

“ And to think that they’re all Englishmen !” 
broke out the squire. “ Sir, I could find it in my 
heart to blow the ship up.” 

“Well, gentlemen,” said the captain, “the best 
that I can say is not much. We must lay to, if you 
please, and keep a bright lookout. It’s trying on a 
man, I know. It would be pleasanter to come to 
blows. But there’s no help for it till we know our 
men. Lay to, and whistle for a wind, that’s my 
view.” 

“ Jim here,” said the doctor, “ can help us more 
than any one. The men are not shy with him, and 
Jim is a noticing lad.” 

“ Hawkins, 1 put prodigious faith in you,” added 
the squire. 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


99 


I began to feel pretty desperate at this, for I felt 
altogether helpless; and yet, by an odd train of cir- 
cumstances, it was indeed through me that safety 
came. In the meantime, talk as we pleased, there 
were only seven out of the twenty-six on whom we 
knew we could rely ; and out of these seven one 
was a boy, so that the grown men on our side wero 
six to their nineteeu 


I ( 


./ 4 - 


PART III. 


MY SHORE ADVENTURE. 


i 

I 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


103 


CHAPTEE XIIL 

HOW MY SHORE ADVENTURE BEGAN. 

The appearance of the island when I came on 
deck next morning was altogether changed. Al- 
though the breeze had now utterly ceased, we had 
made a great deal of way during the night, and were 
now lying becalmed about half a mile to the south- 
east of th« low eastern coast. Gray-colored woods 
covered a large part of the surface. This even tint 
was indeed broken up by streaks of yellow sand- 
break in the lower lands, and by many tall trees of 
the pine family, out-topping the others — some 
singly, some in clumps ; but the general coloring 
was uniform and sad. The hills ran up clear above 
the vegetation in spires of naked rock. All were 
strangely shaped, and the Spyglass, which was by 
three or four hundred feet the tallest on the island, 
was likewise the strangest in configuration, run- 
ning up sheer, from almost every side, and then 
suddenly cut off at the top like a pedestal to put a 
statue on. 

The Hispaniola was rolling scuppers under in the 
ocean swell. The booms were tearing at the blocks. 


104 


TREASURE ISLlND. 


the rudder was banging to and fro, and the whole 
ship creaking, groaning, and jumping like a manu- 
factory. I had to cling tight to the backstay, and 
the world turned giddily before my eyes ; for though 
I was a good enough sailor when there was way on, 
this standing still and being rolled about like a bot- 
tle was a thing I never learned to stand without a 
qualm or so, above all in the morning, on an empty 
stomach. 

Perhaps it was this— perhaps it was the look of 
the island, with its gray, melancholy woods, and 
wild stone spires, and the surf that we could both 
see and hear foaming and thundering on the steep 
beach — at least, although the sun shone bright and 
hot, and the shore birds were fishing and crying all 
around us, and you would have thought any one 
would have been glad to get to land after being so 
long at sea, my heart sank, as the saying is, into my 
boots ; and from that first look onward, I hated the 
very thought of Treasure Island. 

We had a dreary morning’s work before us, for 
there was no sign of any wind, and the boats had to 
be got out and manned, and the ship warped three 
or four miles round the corner of the island, and up 
the narrow passage to the haven behind Skeleton 
Island. I volunteered for one of the boats, where I 
had, of course, no business. The heat was swelter- 
ing, and the men grumbled fiercely over their work. 
Anderson was in command of my boat, and instead 
of keeping the crew in order, he grumbled as loud 
as the worst. 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


Idb 

“Well,” he said, with an oath, “it’s not for- 
ever” 

I thought this was a very bad sign ; for, up to 
that day, the men had gone briskly and willingly 
about their business ; but the very sight of the 
island had relaxed the cords of discipline. 

All the way in, Long John stood by the steers- 
man and conned the ship. He knew the passage 
like the palm of his hand ; and though the man in 
the chains got everywhere more water than was 
'^own on the chart, John never hesitated once. 

“ There’s a strong scour with the ebb,” he said, 
“ and this here passage has been dug out, in a manner 
of speaking, with a spade.” 

We brought up just where the anchor was in the 
chart, about a third of a mile from each shore, the 
mainland on one side, and Skeleton Island on the 
other. The bottom was clean sand. The plunge of 
our anchor sent up clouds of birds wheeling and 
crying over the woods ; but in less than a minute 
they were down again, and all was once more 
silent. 

The place was entirely landlocked, buried in 
woods, the trees coming right down to high-water 
mark, the shores mostly flat, and the hilltops stand- 
ing round at a distance in a sort of amphitheater, 
one here, one there. Two little rivers, or, rather, 
two swamps, emptied out into this pond, as you 
might call it ; and the foliage round that part of the 
shore had a kind of poisonous brightness. From 
the ship we could see nothing of the house or stock- 


106 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


ade, for they were quite buried among trees; 
and if it had not been for the chart on the compan- 
ion, we might have been the first that had ever 
anchored there since the island arose out of the 
seas. 

There was not a breath of air moving, nor a sound 
but that of the surf booming half a mile away along 
the beaches and against the rocks outside. A pecul 
iar stagnant smell hung over the anchorage — a smell 
of sodden leaves and rotting tree trunks. I observed 
the doctor sniffing and sniffing, like some one tasting 
a bad egg. 

“ I don’t know about treasure,” he said, “ but I’ll 
stake my wig there’s fever here.” 

If the conduct of the men had been alarming in 
the boat, it became truly threatening when they had 
come aboard. They lay about the deck growling 
together in talk. The slightest order was received 
with a black look, and grudgingly and carelessly 
obeyed. Even the honest hands must have caught 
the infection, for there was not one man aboard to 
mend another. Mutiny, it was plain, hung over us 
like a thunder-cloud. 

And it was not only we of the cabin party who 
perceived the danger. Long John was hard at work 
going from group to group, spending himself in good 
advice, and as for example no man could have 
shown a better. He fairly outstripped himself in 
willingness and civility ; he was all smiles to every 
one. If an order were given, John would be on his 
crutch in an instant, with the cheeriest “ Ay, ay. 


TBEASURB ISLAND. 


107 


sir !” in the world ; and when there was nothing 
else to do, he kept up one song after another, as if 
to conceal the discontent of the rest. 

Of all the gloomy features of that gloomy after- 
noon, this obvious anxiety on the part of Long John 
appeared the worst. 

We held a council in the cabin. 

“ Sir,” said the captain, “ if I risk another order, 
the whole ship ’ll come about our ears by the run. 
You see, sir, here it is. I get a rough answer, do I 
not ? Well, if I speak back, pikes will be going in 
two shakes ; if I don’t. Silver will see there’s some- 
thing under that, and the game’s up. ^N’ow, we’ve 
only one man to rely on.” 

And who is that ?” asked the squire. 

“ Silver, sir,” returned the captain ; “ he’s as anx* 
ious as you and I to smother things up. This is a 
tiff ; he’d soon talk ’em out of it if he had the 
chance, and what I propose to do is to give him the 
chance. Let’s allow the men an afternoon ashore. 
If they all go, why, we’ll fight the ship. If they 
none of them go, well, then, we hold the cabin, and 
God defend the right. If some go, you mark my 
word, sir, Silver ’ll bring ’em aboard again as mild 
as lambs.” 

It was so decided ; loaded pistols were served out 
to all the sure men; Hunter, Joyce and Kedruth 
were taken into our confidence, and received the 
news with less surprise and a better spirit than we 
had looked for, and then the captain went on deck 
and addressed the crew. 


1C8 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


“ My lads,” said he, “ we’ve had a hot day, and 
are all tired and out of sorts. A turn ashore ’ll hurt 
nobody — the boats are still in the water; you can 
take the gigs, and as many as please may go ashore 
for the afternoon. I’ll fire a gun half an hour 
before sundown.” 

I believe the silly fellows must have thought they 
would break their shins over treasure as soon as they 
were landed ; for they all came out of their sulks in 
a moment, and gave a cheer that started the echo in 
a far-away hill, and sent the birds once more flying 
and squalling round the anchorage. 

The captain was too bright to be in the way. He 
whipped out of sight in a moment, leaving Silver to 
arrange the party ; and I fancy it was as well he did 
so. Had he been on deck, he could no longer so 
much as have pretended not to understand the 
situation. It was as plain as day. Silver was the 
captain, and a mighty rebellious crew he had of it. 
The honest hands — and I was soon to see it proved 
that there were such on board — must have been very 
stupid fellows. Or, rather, I suppose the truth was 
this, that all hands were disaffected by the example 
of the ringleaders — only some more, some less ; and 
a few, being good fellows in the main, could neither 
be led nor driven any further. It is one thing to be 
idle and skulk, and quite another to take a ship and 
murder a number of innocent men. 

At last, however, the party was made up. Six 
fellows were to stay on board, and the remaining 
thirteen, including Silver, began to embark. 


TREASURE IELAl!s^D. 


109 


Then it was that there came into my head the 
first of the mad notions that contributed so much to 
save our lives. If six men were left by Silver, it 
was plain our party could not take and fight the 
ship; and since only six were left, it was equally 
plain that the cabin party had no present need of 
my assistance. It occurred to me at once to go 
ashore. In a jiffy I had slipped over the side, and 
curled up in the fore-sheets of the nearest boat, and 
almost at the same moment she shoved off. 

No one took notice of me, only the bow oar 
saying, “Is that you, Jim? Keep your head down.’’ 
But Silver, from the other boat, looked sharply over 
and called out to know if that were me; and from 
that ntoment I began to regret what I had done. 

The crews faced for the beach; but the boat I 
was in, having some start, and being at once the 
lighter and the better manned, shot far ahead of her 
consort, and the bow had struck among the shore- 
side trees, and I had caught a branch and swung 
myself out, and plunged into the nearest thicket, 
wdiile Silver and the rest were still a hundred yards 
behind. 

“Jim, Jim!” I heard him shouting. 

But you may suppose I paid no heed; jumping, 
ducking, and breaking through, I ran straight before 
my nose, till I could run no longer. 


TREASURE ISLAND 




CHAPTER XIV. 

THE FIRST BLOW. 

I WAS SO pleased at having given the slip to Long 
John that I began to enjoy myself and look around 
me with some interest on the strange land that I 
was in. 

I had crossed a marshy tract full of willows, 
bulrushes, and odd, outlandish, swampy trees ; and 
I had now come out upon the skirts of an open 
piece of undulating, sandy country, about a mile 
long, dotted with a few pines, and a great number 
of contorted trees, not unlike the oak in growth, but 
pale in the foliage, like willows. On the far side of 
the open stood one of the hills, with two quaint, 
craggy peaks, shining vividly in the sun. 

I now felt for the first time the joy of explora- 
tion. The isle was uninhabited ; my shipmates I 
had left behind, and nothing lived in front of me 
but dumb brutes and fowls. I turned hither and 
thither among the trees. Here and there were 
flowering plants, unknown to me ; here and there I 
saw snakes, and one raised his head from a ledge of 
rock and hissed at me with a noise not unlike the 
spinning of a top. Little did I suppose that he was 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


Ill 


a deadly enemy, and that the noise was the famous 
rattle. 

Then I came to a long thicket of these oak-liks 
trees — ^live, or evergreen oaks, I heard afterward 
they should be called — which grew low along the 
sand like brambles, the boughs curiously twisted, the 
foliage compact, like thatch. The thicket stretched 
down from the top of one of the sandy knolls, 
spreading and growing taller as it went, until it 
reached the margin of the broad, reedy fen, through 
which the nearest of the little rivers soaked its way 
into the anchorage. The mai'sh was steaming in 
the strong sun, and the outline of the Spyglass 
trembled through the haze. 

All at once there began to go a sort of bustle 
among the bulrushes ; a wild duck flew up with a 
quack, another followed, and soon over the whole 
surface of the marsh a great cloud of birds hung 
screaming and circling in the air. I judged at once 
that some of my shipmates must be drawing near 
along the borders of the fen. l^or was I deceived ; 
for soon I heard the very distant and low tones of a 
human voice, which, as I continued to give ear, grew 
steadily louder and nearer. 

This put me in a great fear, and I crawled under 
cover of the nearest live-oak, and squatted there, 
hearkening, as silent as a mouse. 

Another voice answered ; and then the first voice, 
which I now recognized to be Silver’s, once more 
took up the story, and ran on for a long while in a 
stream, only now and again interrupted by the 


112 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


other. By the sound they must have been talking 
earnestly, and almost fiercely ; but no distinct word 
came to my hearing. 

At last the speakers seemed to have paused, and 
perhaps to have sat down ; for not only did they 
cease to draw any nearer, but the birds themselves 
began to grow more quiet, and to settle again to 
their places in the swamp. 

And now I began to feel that I was neglecting 
my business ; that since I had been so foolhardy as 
to come ashore with these desperadoes, the least 1 
could do was to overhear them at their councils ; 
and that ray plain and obvious duty was to draw as 
close as I could manage, under the favorable ambush 
of the crouching trees. 

I could tell the direction of the speakers pretty 
exactly, not only by the sound of their voices, but 
by the behavior of the few birds that still hung in 
alarm above the heads of the intruders. 

Crawling on all-fours I made steadily but slowly 
toward them ; till at last, raising my head to an 
aperture among the leaves, I could see clear down 
into a little green dell beside the marsh, and closely 
set about with trees, where Long John Silver and 
another of the crew stood face to face ’n jonversa- 
tion. 

The sun beat full upon them. Silver had thrown 
his hat ^ide him on the ground, and his great, 
omooth, blond face, all shining with heat, was lifted 
to the other man’s in a kind of appeal. 

^‘Mate,” he was saying, “it’s because I thinks 


TREASURE ISL^SD. 


113 


gold dust of you — gold dust, and you may lay to 
that ! If I hadn’t took to you like pitch, do you 
think I’d have been here a- warning of you ? All’s 
up — you can’t make nor mend ; it’s to save your 
neck that I am speaking, and if one of the wild 
’uns knew it, where ’ud I be, Tom — now, tell me, 
where ’ud I be ?” 

“ Silver,” said the other man — and I observed he 
was not only red in the face, but spoke as hoarse as 
a crow, and his voice shook, too, like a taut rope— 
“Silver,” says he, “you’re old, and you’re honest, 
or has the name for it ; and you’ve money, too, 
which lots of poor sailors hasn’t ; and you’re brave, or 
I’m mistook. And will you tell me you’ll let yourself 
be led away with that kind of a mess of swabs ? not 
you ! As sure as God sees me, I’d sooner lose my 
hand. If I turn ag’in my dooty ” 

And then all of a sudden he was interrupted by a 
noise. I had found one of the honest hands — well 
here, at that same moment, came news of another. 
Far away out in the marsh there arose, all of a 
sudden, a sound like a cry of anger, then another 
on the back of it ; and then one horrid, long-drawn 
scream. The rocks of the Spyglass re-echoed it a 
score of times ; the whole troop of marsh-birds rose 
again, darkening heaven, with a simultaneous 
whirr ; and long after that death yell was still ring- 
ing in my brain, silence had re-established its 
empire, and only the rustle of the redescending 
birds and the boom of the distant surges disturbed 
the languor of the afternoon. 


TBEASURB ISLAND. 


114 

Tom had leaped at the sound, like a horse at the 
spur ; but Silver had not winked an eye. He 
stood where he was, resting lightly on his crutch, 
watching his companion like a snake about to 
spring. 

“John !” said the sailor, stretching out his hand. 

“ Hands off 1” cried Silver, leaping back a yard, a^ 
it seemed to me, with the speed and security of a 
trained gymnast. 

“ Hands off, if you like, John Silver,” said the 
other. “ It’s a black conscience that can make you 
feared of me. But, in heaven’s name, tell me what 
was that ?” 

“ That ?” returned Silver, smiling away, but warier 
than ever, his eye a mere pin-point in his big face, 
but gleaming like a crumb of glass. “ That ? Oh, 
1 reckon that’ll be Alan.” 

And at this poor Tom flashed out like a hero. 

“ Alan I” he cried. “ Then rest his soul for a true 
seaman 1 And as for you, John Silver, long you’ve 
been a mate of mine, but you’re mate of mine no 
more. If I die like a dog. I’ll die in my dooty. 
You’ve killed Alan, have you ? Kill me, too, if 
y^ou can. But I defies you.” 

And with that, this brave fellow turned his back 
directly on the cook, and set off walking for the 
beach. But he was not destined to go far. With 
a cry, John seized the branch of a tree, whipped the 
crutch out of his armpit, and sent that uncouth 
missile hurtling through the air. It struck poor 
Tom, point foremost, and with stunning violence, 


TEEASUBE ISIjAND, 


115 


right between the shoulders in the middle of his 
' back. His hands flew up, he gave a sort of gasp, 
and fell. 

Whether he were injured much or little, none 
could ever tell. Like enough, to judge from the 
sound, his back was broken on the spot. But he 
had no time given him to recover. Silver, agile as 
a monkey, even without leg or crutch, was on the 
top of him next moment, and had twice buried his 
knife up to the hilt in that defenceless body. From 
my place of ambush, I could hear him pant aloud 
as he struck the blows. 

I do not know what it rightly is to faint, but I do 
know that for the next little while the whole world 
swam away from before me in a whirling mist; 
Silver and the birds, and the tall Spyglass hill top, 
going round and round and topsy-turvy before my 
eyes, and all manner of bells ringing and distant 
voices shouting in my ear. 

When 1 came again to myself, the monster had 
pulled himself together, his crutch under his arm, 
his hat upon his head. Just before him Tom lay 
motionless upon the sward; but the murderer 
minded him not a whit, cleansing his blood-stained 
knife the while upon a wisp of grass. Everything 
else was unchanged, the sun still shining mercilessly 
on the steaming marsh and the tall pinnacle of the 
mountain, and I could -scarce persuade myself that 
murder had been actually done, and a human life 
cruelly cut short a moment since, before my eyes. 

But now John put his hand into his pocket. 


116 


TBEASURB ISLAND. 


brought out a whistle, and blew upon it several 
modulated blasts, that rang far across the heated 
air. I could not teB, of course, the meaning of the 
signal ; but it instantly awoke my fears. More men 
would be coming. I might be discovered. They 
had already slain two of the honest people ; after 
Tom and Alan, might not I come next ? 

Instantly 1 began to extricate myself and crawl 
back again, with what speed and silence I could 
manage, to the more open portion of the wood. As 
I did so, I could hear hails coming and going between 
the old buccaneer and his comrades, and this sound 
of danger lent me wings. As soon as I was clear of 
the thicket, I ran as I never ran before, scarce mind- 
ing the direction of my flight, so long as it led me 
from the murderers ; and as I ran, fear grew and 
grew upon me, until it turned into a kind of frenzy. 

Indeed, could any one be more entirely lost than 
I ? When the gun fired, how should I dare to go 
down to the boats among those fiends, still smoking 
from their crime ? Would not the first of them who 
saw me wring my neck like a snipe’s? Would not 
my absence itself be an evidence to them of my alarm, 
and therefore of my fatal knowledge ? It was all 
over, I thought. Good-by to the Hispaniola ; good- 
by to the squire, the doctor, and the captain ! There 
was nothing left for me but death by starvation, or 
death by the hands of the mutineers. 

All this while, as I say, I was still running, and, 
without taking any notice, I had drawn near to the 
foot of the little hill with the two peaks, and had 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


117 


got into a part of the island where the live-oaks 
grew more widely apart, and seemed more like for- 
est trees in their bearing and dimensions. Mingled 
with these were a few scattered pines, some fifty, 
some nearer seventy feet high. The air, too, smelled 
more freshly than down beside the marsh. 

And here a fresh alarm brought me to a standstill 
with a thumping heart 


1X8 


2BEASUBE ISLAIf'D. 


CHAPTER xy. 

THE MAN OF THE ISLAND. 

From the side of the hill, which was here steep 
and stony, a spout of gravel was dislodged, and 
fell rattling and bounding through the trees. My 
eyes turned instinctively in that direction, and I saw 
a figure leap with great rapidity behind the trunk 
of a pine. What it was, whether bear or man or 
monkey, I could in nowise tell. It seemed dark 
and shaggy ; more I knew not. But the terror of 
this new apparition brought me to a stand. 

I was now, it seemed, cut off upon both sides ; 
oehind me the murderers, before me this lurking 
nondescript. And immediately I began to prefer 
the dangers that I knew to those I knew not. Sil- 
ver himself appeared less terrible in ccmtrast with 
this creature of the woods, and I turned on my 
heel, and, looking sharply behind me over my 
shoulder, began to retrace my steps in the direction 
of the boats. 

Instantly the figure reappeared, and, making a 
wide circuit, began to head me off. I was tired, at 
any rate ; but had I been as fresh as when I rose, I 
could see it was in vain for me to contend in speed 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


119 


with such an adversary. From trunk to trunk the 
creature flitted like a deer, running manlike on two 
legs, but unlike any man that I had ever seen, 
stooping almost double as it ran. Yet a man it was, 
I could no longer be in doubt about that. 

I began to recall what I had heard of cannibals. 
I was within an ace of calling for help. But the 
mere fact that he was a man, however wild, had 
somewhat reassured me, and my fear of Silver 
began to revive in proportion. I stood still, there- 
fore, and cast about for some method of escape ; and 
as I was so thinking, the recollection of my pistol 
flashed into my mind. As soon as I remembered I 
was not defenseless, courage glowed again in my 
heart ; and I set my face resolutely for this man of 
the island, and walked briskly toward him. 

He was concealed by this time behind another 
tree trunk ; but he must have been watching me 
closely, for as soon as I began to move in his direc- 
tion he reappeared and took a step to meet me. 
Then he hesitated, drew back, came forward again, 
and at last, to my wonder and confusion, threw him- 
self on his knees and held out his clasped hands in 
supplication. 

At that I once more stopped. 

“ Who are you I asked. 

“ Ben Gunn,” he answered, and his voice sounded 
hoarse and awkward, like a rusty lock. “ I’m poor 
Ben Gunn, I am ; and I haven’t spoke with a Chris- 
tian these three years.” 

I could now see that he was a white man like my- 


120 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


self, and that his features were even pleasing. His 
skin, wherever it was exposed, was burned by the 
sun ; even his lips were black, and his fair eyes 
looked quite startling in so dark a face. Of all the 
beggar-men that I had seen or fancied, he was the 
chief for raggedness. He was clothed with tatters 
of old ship’s canvas and old sea cloth ; and this 
extraordinary patchwork was all held together by a 
system of the most various and incongruous fasten- 
ings, brass buttons, bits of stick, and loops of tarry 
gaskin. About his waist he wore an old brass- 
buckled leather belt, which was the one thing solid 
in his whole accouterment. 

“Three years!” I cried. “Were you ship- 
wrecked ?” 

“ Nay, mate,” said he — “ marooned.” 

I had heard the word, and 1 knew it stood for a 
horrible kind of punishment common enough among 
the buccaneers, in which the offender is put ashore 
with a little powder and shot, and left behind on 
some desolate and distant island. 

“Marooned three years agone,” he continued, 
“ and lived on goats since then, and berries, and 
oysters. Wherever a man is, says I, a man can do 
for himself. But, mate, my heart is sore for Chris- 
tian diet. You mightn’t happen to have a piece of 
cheese about you, now? No? Well, many’s the 
long night I’ve dreamed of cheese — toasted, mostly 
— and woke up again, and here 1 were.” 

“If ever I can get aboard again,” said I, “you 
shall have cheese by the stone.” 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


121 


All this time he had been feeling the stuff of my 
jacket, smoothing my hands, looking at my boots, 
and generally, in the intervals of his speech, showing 
a childish pleasure in the presence of a fellow- 
creature. But at my last words he perked up into 
a kind of startled slyness. 

“ If ever you can get aboard again, says you he 
repeated, “ Why, now, who’s to hinder you 

“ Hot you, I know,” was my reply. 

“And right you was,” he cried. “How you—* 
what do you call yourself, mate ?” 

“Jim,” I told him. 

“Jim, Jim,” says he, quite pleased apparently. 
“Well, now, Jim, I’ve lived that rough as you’d be 
ashamed to hear of. How, for instance, you 
wouldn’t think I had had a pious mother — to look 
at me ?” he asked. 

“ Why, no, not in particular,” I answered. 

“Ah, well,” said he, “but I had — remarkable 
pious. And I was a civil, pious boy, and could 
rattle off my catechism that fast, as you couldn’t 
tell one word from another. And here’s what it 
come to, Jim, and it begun with chuck-farthen on 
the blessed gravestones! That’s what it begun 
with, but it went further’n that ; and so my mother 
told me, and predicked the whole, she did, the pious 
woman ! But it were Providence that put me here. 
I’ve thought it all out in this here lonely island, and 
I’m back on piety. You don’t catch me tasting rum 
so much ; but just a thimbleful for luck, of course, 
the first chance I have. I’m bound rU be good, 


122 


TBEA8URE ISLAND, 


and I see the way to. And, Jim’* — looking all 
round him, and lowering his voice to a whisper — 
“ I’m rich.” 

I now felt sure that the poor fellow had gone 
crazy in his solitude, and I suppose I must have 
shown the feeling in my face ; for he repeated the 
statement hotly : 

“Rich! rich! I says. And I’ll tell you what: 
I’ll make a man of you, Jim. Ah, Jim, you’ll bless 
your stars, you will, you was the first that found 
me !” 

And at this there came suddenly a lowering 
shadow over his face, and he tightened his grasp 
upon my hand, and raised a fore finger threateningly 
before my eyes. 

“ Now, Jim, you tell me true : that ain’t Flint’s 
jhip ?” he asked. 

At this I had a happy inspiration. I began to 
believe that I had found an ally, and I answered 
him at once. 

“ It’s not Flint’s ship, and Flint is dead ; but I’ll 
tell you true, as you ask me — there are some of 
Flint’s hands aboard; worse luck for the rest of 
us.” 

“ Not a man — with one — leg?” he gasped. 

“ Silver V I asked. 

“ Ah, Silver !” says he ; “ that were his name.” 

“ He’s the cook ; and the ringleader, too.” 

He was still holding me by the wrist, and at that 
he gave it quite a wring. 

“If you was sent by Long John,” he said, “I’m 


mEASUBE ISLAJTD, 


m 


as good as pork, and I know it. But where was 
you, do you suppose 

I had made my mind up in a moment, and by way 
of answer told him the whole story of our voyage, 
and the predicament in which we found ourselves. 
He heard me with the keenest interest, and when I 
had done he patted me on the head. 

“ You’re a good lad, Jim,” he said ; “and you’re 
all in a clove hitch, ain’t you? Well, you just put 
your trust in Ben Gunn — Ben Gunn’s the man to do 
it. Would you think it likely, now, that your squire 
would prove a liberal-minded one in case of help — 
him being in a clove hitch, as you remark ?” 

I told him the squire was the most liberal of men. 

“ A}", but you see,” returned Ben Gunn, “ I didn’t 
mean giving me a gate to keep, and a suit of livery 
clothes, and such ; that’s not my mark, Jim. What 
I mean is, would he be likely to come down to the 
toon of, say one thousand pounds out of money 
that’s as good as a man’s own already !” 

“ I am sure he would,” said I. “ As it was, all 
hands were to share.” 

“ And a passage home ?” he added, with a look of 
great shrewdness. 

“ Why,” I cried, “ the squire’s a gentleman. And, 
besides, if we got rid of the others, we should want 
you to help work the vessel home.” 

“ Ah,” said he, “ so you would.” And he seemed 
very much relieved. 

“How, I’ll tell you what,” he went on. “So much 
I’ll teU you, and no more. I were in Flint’s ship 


124 


TREASlrHE ISLAND. 


when he buried the treasure , he and six along — six 
strong seamen. They was ashore nigh on a week, 
and us standing off and on in the old Walrus. One 
fine day up went the signal, and here come Flint by 
himself in a little boat, and his head done up in a 
blue scarf. The sun was getting up, and mortal 
white he looked about the cutwater. But, there he 
was, you mind, and the six all dead — dead and 
buried. How he done it, not a man aboard us could 
make out. It was battle, murder, and sudden death, 
leastways — him against six. Billy Bones was the 
mate ; Long John, he was quartermaster ; and they 
asked him where the treasure was. ‘ Ah,’ says he, 
^you can go ashore, if you like, and stay,’ he says; 
^but as for the ship, she’ll beat up for more, by 
thunder !’ That’s what he said. 

“ Well, 1 was in another ship three years back, 
and we sighted this island. ‘Boys,’ said I, ‘here’s 
Flint’s treasure ; let’s land and find it.’ The cap’ll 
was displeased at that ; but my messmates were all 
of a mind, and landed. Twelve days they looked 
for it, and every day they had the worse word for 
me, until one fine morning all hands went aboard. 

As for you, Benjamin Gunn,’ says they, ‘ here’s a 
musket,’ they says, ‘ and a spade and pickaxe. You 
can stay here, and find Flint’s money for yourself,’ 
they says. 

“Well, Jim, three years have I been here, and 
not a bite of Christian diet from that day to this. 
But now, you look here ; look at me. Do I look 
like 51 before the mast? Ho, says you. Hor I 
tv ere n't. neither. J savs,” 


TMEASURE ISLAND, 


125 


And with that he winked and pinched me hard. 

“ J ust you mention them words to your squire, 
Jim” — he went on: “Nor he weren’t, neither — 
that’s the words. Three years he were the man of 
this island, light and dark, fair and rain ; and some- 
times he would, maybe, think upon a prayer (says 
you), and sometimes he would, maybe, think of his 
old mother, so be as she’s alive (}’'ou’ll say) ; but the 
most part of Gunn’s time (this is what you’ll say) — 
the most part of his time was took up with another 
matter. And then ^^ou’ll give him a nip, like I do.” 

And he pinched me again in the most confidential 
manner. 

“ Then,” he continued — “ then you’ll up, and you’ll 
tjay this : — Gunn is a good man (you’ll say), and he 
puts a precious sight more confidence — a precious 
sight, mind that — in a gen’leman born than in these 
gen’Iemen of fortune, having been one hisself.” 

“ Well,” I said, “ I don’t understand one word that 
you’ve been saying. But that’s neither here nor 
there ; for how am I to get on board ?” 

“Ah,” said he, “that’s the hitch for sure. Well, 
there’s my boat, that I made with my two hands. 
L keep her under the white rock. If the worst 
come to the worst, we might try that after dark. 
Hi!” he broke out, “ what’s that?” 

For just then, although the sun had still an hour 
or two to run, all the echoes of the island awoke and 
bellowed to the thunder of a cannon. 

“They have begun to fight!” I cried. “Follow 
me.” 


126 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


And I began to run toward the anchorage, my 
terrors all forgotten ; while, close at my side, the 
marooned man in his goatskins trotted easily and 
lightly. 

“ Left, left,’’ says he ; “ keep to your left hand, 
mate Jim I Under the trees with you! There’s 
where I killed my first goat. They don’t come 
down here now; they’re all mastheaded on them 
mountings for the fear of Benjamin Gunn. Ah) 
and there’s the cetemery ” — cemetery, he must have 
meant. “ You see the mounds? I come here and 
prayed, nows and thens, when I thought maybe a 
Sunday would be about doo. It weren’t quite a 
chapel, but it seemed more solemn like ; and then, 
says you, Ben Gunn was short-handed — no chapling, 
nor so much as a Bible and a flag, you says.” 

So he kept talking as I ran, neither expecting noi 
receiving any answer. 

The cannon-shot was followed, after a consider- 
able interval, by a volley of small arms. 

Another pause, and then, not a quarter of a mile 
in front of me, I beheld the Union Jack flutter in 
the air above a wood. 


PART IV. 


THE STOCKADE, 




TBEASdRE ISLAND, 


12 & 


CHAPTER XYI. 

KAEEATIVB CONTINUED BY THE DOCTOR % HOW THE 
SHIP WAS ABANDONED. 

It was about half-past one — three bells in the sea 
phrase — that the two boats went ashore from the 
Hispaniola. The captain, the squire, and I were 
talking matters over in the cabin. Had there been 
a breath of wind, we should have fallen on the six 
mutineers who were left aboard with us, slipped 
our cable, and away to sea. But the wind was 
wanting ; and, to complete our helplessness, down 
came Hunter with the news that Jim Hawkins had 
slipped into a boat and was gone ashore with the 
rest. 

It never occurred to us to doubt Jim Hawkins ; 
but we were alarmed for his safety. With the men 
in the temper they were in, it seemed an even 
chance if we should see the lad again. We ran on 
deck. The pitch was bubbling in the seams; the 
nasty stench of the place turned me sick ; if ever a 
man smelled fever and dysentery, it was in that 
abominable anchorage. The six scoundrels were 
sitting grumbling under a sail in the forecastle; 
ashore we could see the gigs made fast, and a man 


130 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


sitting in each, hard by where the river runs in. One 
of them was whistling Lillibullero.” 

Waiting was a strain ; and it was decided that 
Hunter and I should go ashore with the jolly-boat, 
in quest of information. 

The gigs had leaned to their right ; but Hunter 
and I pulled straight in, in the direction of the stock- 
ade upon the chart. The two who were left guard- 
ing their boats seemed in a bustle at our appearance ; 
‘‘ Lillibullero ” stopped ofip, and I could see the pair 
discussing what they ought to do. Had they gone 
and told Silver, all might have turned out differently ; 
but they had their orders, I suppose, and decided to 
sit quietly where they were and hark back again to 

Lillibullero.'’ 

There was a slight bend in the coast, and I steered 
so as to put it between us ; even before we landed 
we had thus lost sight of the gigs. I jumped out, 
and came as near running as I durst, with a big 
silk handkerchief under my hat for coolness’ sake, 
and a brace of pistols ready primed for safety. 

I had not gone a hundred yards when I reached 
the stockade. 

This was how it was : a spring of clear water 
rose almost at the top of a knoll. Well, on the 
knoll, and enclosing the spring, they had clapped 
a stout log-house, fit to hold two-score of people on 
a pinch, and loopholed for musketry on every side. 
All round this they had cleared a wide space, and 
then the thing was completed by a paling six feet 
high, without door or opening, too strong to pull 


TREASTTRE ISLAND. 


131 


down without time and labor, and too open to 
shelter the besiegers. The people in the log-house 
had them in every way ; they stood quiet in shelter 
and shot the others like partridges. All they 
wanted was a good watch and food ; for, short of a 
complete surprise, they might have held the place 
against a regiment. 

What particularly took my fancy was the spring. 
For, though we had a good enough place of it in the 
cabin of the Hispaniola, with plenty of arms and^ 
ammunition, and things to eat, and excellent wines, 
there had been one thing overlooked — we had no 
water. I was thinking this over, when there came 
ringing over the island the cry of a man at the point 
of death. I was not new to violent death — I have 
served his Koyal Highness the Duke of Cumberland, 
and got a wound myself at Fontenoy — but I know 
my pulse went dot and carry one. “Jim Hawkins 
is gone,” was my first thought. 

It is something to have been an old soldier, but 
more still to have been a doctor. There is no time 
to dilly-dally in our work. And so now I made up 
my mind instantly, and with no time lost returned 
to the shore, and jumped on board the jolly-boat. 

By good fortune Hunter pulled a good oar. We 
made the water fiy ; and the boat was soon along- 
side, and I aboard the schooner. 

I found them all shaken, as was natural. The 
squire was sitting down, as white as a sheet, think- 
ing of the harm he had led us to, the good soul ! and 
one the six forecastle hands was little better. 


132 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


“ There’s a man,” says Captain Smollett, nodding 
toward him, “new to this work. He came nigh- 
hand fainting, doctor, when he heard the cry. 
Another touch of the rudder and that man would 
join us.” 

I told my plan to the captain, and between us we 
settled on the details of its accomplishment. 

W e put old Kedruth in the gallery between the 
cabin and the forecastle, with three or four loaded 
muskets and a mattress for protection. Hunter 
brought the boat round under the stern port, and 
Joyce and I set to work loading her with powder 
tins, muskets, bags of biscuits, kegs of pork, a cask 
of cognac, and my invaluable medicine chest. 

In the meantime, the squire and the captain 
stayed on deck, and the latter hailed the coxswain, 
who was the principal man aboard. 

“ Mr. Hands,” he said, “ here are tw^o of us with a 
brace of pistols each. If any one of you six make 
a signal of any description, that man’s dead.” 

They were a good deal taken aback ; and, after a 
little consultation, one and all tumbled down the 
fore companion, thinking, no doubt, to take us on 
the rear. But when they saw Kedruth waiting for 
them in the sparred gallery, the}^ went about ship 
at once, and a head popped out again on deck. 

, “Down, dog!” cries the captain. 

And the head popped back again ; and we heard 
no more, for the time, of these six very faint-hearted 
seamen. 

By this time, tumbling things in as they came, we 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


133 


had the jolly-boat loaded as much as we dared. 
Joyce and I got out through the stern-port, and wo 
made for shore again, as fast as oars could take us. 

This second trip fairly aroused the watchers along 
shore. “ Liilibullero ” was dropped again ; and just 
before we lost sight of them behind the little point, 
one of them whipped ashore and disappeared. I had 
half a mind to change my plan and destroy their 
boats, but I feared that Silver and the others might 
be close at hand, and all might very well be lost by 
trying for too much. 

TV’e had soon touched land in the same place as 
before, and set to provision the block house. All 
three made the first journey, heavily laden, and 
tossed our stores over the palisade. Then, leaving 
Joyce to guard them — one man, to be sure, but with 
half a dozen muskets — Hunter and I returnecKo the 
jolly-boat, and loaded ourselves once more. So we 
proceeded without pausing to take breath, till the 
whole cargo was bestowed, when the two servants 
took up their position in the blockhouse, and I, 
with all my power, sculled back to the Hispaniola. 

That we should have risked a second boat load 
seems more daring than it really was. They had the 
advantage of numbers, of course, but we had the 
advantage of arms. Hot one of the men ashore had 
a musket, and before they could get within range 
for pistol shooting, we flattered ourselves we should 
be able to give a good account of a half-dozen at 
least. 

The squire was waiting for me at ^he stem win- 


TBEA8DHE ISLAND. 


lU 

dov7^ all his faintness gone from him. He caught 
the painter and made it fast, and we fell to loading 
the boat for our very lives. Pork, powder, and bis- 
cuit was the cargo, with only a musket and a cut- 
lass apiece for the squire and me and Kedruth and 
the captain. The rest of the arms and powder we 
dropped overheard in two fathoms and a half of 
water, so that we could see the bright steel shining 
far below us in the sun, on the clean, sandy bottom. 

By this time the tide was beginning to ebb, and 
the ship was swinging round to her anchor. Yoices 
were heard faintly hallooing in the direction of the 
two gigs; and though this reassured us for Joyce 
and Hunter, who were well to the eastward, it 
warned our party to be off. 

Kedruth retreated from his place in the gallery, 
and dropped into the boat, which we then brought 
round to the ship’s counter, to be handier for Cap- 
tain Smollett. 

“ISTow, men,” said he, “ do you hear me ?” 

There was no answer from the forecastle. 

“ It’s to you, Abraham Gray — it’s to you I am 
speaking.” 

Still no reply. 

“ Gray,” resumed Mr. Smollett, a little louder, “ I 
am leaving this ship, and I order you to follow your 
captain. I know you are a good man at bottom, 
and I dare say not one of the lot of you’s as bad as 
he makes out. I have my watch here in my hand ; 
I give you thirty seconds to join me in.” 

There was a pause. 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


136 


“ Come, my fine fellow,” continued the captain, 
don’t hang so long in stays. I’m risking my life, 
and the lives of these good gentlemen every second.” 

There was a sudden scuffle, a sound of blows, and 
out burst Abraham Gray with a knife cut on the 
side of the cheek, and came running to the captain, 
like a dog to the whistle. 

“ I’m with you, sir,” said he. 

And the next moment he and the captain had 
dropped aboard of us, and we had shoved off and 
given way. 

We were clear out of the ship ; but not yet ashore 
iu our stockade. 


m 


mSASURB IBLANB. 


CHAPTER XVH 

SABRATIVE CONTINUED BT THE DOCTOR * THE JOLLT- 

boat’s last trip. 

This fifth trip was quite different from any of the 
others. In the first place, the little gallipot of a 
boat that we were in was gravely overloaded. Five 
grown men, and three of them — Trelawney, Red- 
ruth, and the captain — over six feet high, was 
already more than she was meant to carry. Add to 
that the powder, pork, and bread-bags. The gun- 
wale was lipping astern. Several times we shipped 
a little water, and my breeches and the tails of my 
coat were all soaking wet before we had gone a 
hundred yards. 

The captain made us trim the boat, and we got 
her to lie a little more evenly. All the same we 
were afraid to breath. 

In the second place, the ebb was now making — a 
strong rippling current running westward through 
the basin, and then south’ard and seaward down the 
straits by which we had entered in the morning 
Even the ripples were a danger to our overloaded 
craft ; but the worst of it was that we were swept 
out of our true course, and away from our propel 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


137 


landing-place behind the point. If we let the 
current have its way we should come ashore beside 
the gigs, where the pirates might appear at any 
moment. 

“ I cannot keep her head for the stockade, sir,” 
said I to the captain. I was steering, while he and 
Redruth, two fresh men, were at the oars. “ The 
tide keeps washing her down. Could you puli a 
little stronger 

“ Not without swamping the boat,” said he. “ You 
must bear up, sir, if you please — bear up until you 
see you’re gaining.” 

I tried, and found by experiment that the tide kept 
sweeping us westward until I had laid her head due 
east, or just about right angles to the way we ought 
to go. 

“ We’U never get ashore at this rate,” said I. 

“ If it’s the only course that we can lie, sir, we 
must even lie it,” returned the captain. “We must 
keep upstream. You see, sir,” he went on, “ if once 
we dropped to leeward of the landing-place, it’s hard 
to say where we should get ashore, besides the 
chance of being boarded by the gigs ; whereas the 
way we go the current must slacken, and then we 
can dodge back along the shore.” 

“ The current’s less a’ready, sir,” said the man 
Gray, who was sitting in the fore-sheets ; “ you can 
ease her off a bit.” - 

“ Thank you, my man,” said I, quite as if nothing 
had happened ; for we had all quietly made up our 
minds to treat him like one of ourselves. 


138 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


Suddenly the captain spoke up again, and I 
thought his voice was a little changed. 

“ The gun I” said he. 

I have thought of that,” said I, for I made sure 
he was thinking of a bombardment of the fort. 
‘‘ They could never get the gun ashore, and if they 
did, they could never haul it through the woods.” 

“ I;Ook astern, doctor,” replied the captain. 

We had entirely forgotten the long nine ; and 
there, to our horror, were the five rogues busy about 
her, getting off her jacket, as they called the stout 
tarpaulin cover under which she sailed. [N’ot only 
that, but it flashed into my mind at the same 
moment that the round shot and the powder for the 
gun had been left behind, and a stroke with an axe 
would put it all into the possession of the evil ones 
aboard. 

“ Israel was Flint’s gunner,” said Gray hoarsely. 

At any risk we put the boat’s head direct for the 
landing-place. By this time we had got so far out 
of the run of the current that we kept steerage way 
^ven at our necessarily gentle rate of rowing, and I 
•could keep her steady for the goal. But the worst 
of it was, that with the course I now held, we turned 
our broadside instead of our stern to the Hispaniola, 
and offered a target like a barn door. 

I could hear, as well as see, that brandy-faced 
rascal, Israel Hands, plumping down a round-shot 
on the deck. 

“ Who’s the best shot asked the captain, 

“ Mr, Trelawney^ out 4 Qd away,” said 1. 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


139 


" Mr. Trelawney, will you please pick me off one 
of these men, sir? Hands, if possible,” said the 
captain. 

Trelawney was as cool as steel. He looked to the 
priming of his gun. 

“How,” cried the captain, “easy with that gun, 
sir, or you’ll swamp the boat. All hands stand by 
to trim her when he aims.” 

The squire raised his gun, the rowing ceased, and 
we leaned over to the other side to keep the balance, 
and all was so nicely contrived that we did not ship 
a drop. 

They had the gun, by this time, slewed round upon 
the swivel, and Hands, who was at the muzzle with 
the rammer, was, in consequence, the most exposed. 
However, we had no luck; for just as Trelawney 
fired, down he stooped, the ball whistled over him, 
and it was one of the other four who fell. 

The cry he gave was echoed, not only by his com- 
panions on board, but by a great number of voices 
from the shore, and looking in that direction I saw 
the other pirates trooping out from among the trees 
and tumbling into their places in the boats. 

“ Here come the gigs, sir,” said I. 

“ Give way then,” cried the captain. We mustn’t 
mind if we swamp her now. If we can’t get ashore 
all’s up.” 

“ Only one of the gigs is being manned, sir,” I 
added, “ the crew of the other most likely going 
round by shore to cut us off.” 

“ They’ll have a hot run, sir,” returned the captain. 


140 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


"Jack ashore, you know. It’s not them I mind; 
it’s the round-shot. Carpet bowls ! My lady’s maid 
couldn’t miss. Tell us, squire, Avhen you see the 
match, and we’ll hold water.” 

In the meanwhile we had been making headway 
at a good pace for a boat so overloaded, and we had 
shipped but little water in the process. We were 
now close in ; thirty or forty strokes and we should 
beach her ; for the ebb had already disclosed a 
narrow belt of sand below the clustering trees. The 
gig was no longer to be feared ; the little point had 
already concealed it from our eyes. The ebb-tide, 
which had so cruelly delayed us, was now making 
reparation, and delaying our assailants. The one 
source of danger was the gun. 

" If I durst,” said the captain, " I’d stop and pick 
off another man.” 

But it was plain that they meant nothing should 
delay their shot. They had never so much as looked 
at their fallen comrade, though he was not dead, 
I could see him trying to crawl away. 

" Ready !” cried the squire. 

" Hold !” cried the captain, quick as an echo. 

And he and Redruth backed with a great heave 
that sent her stern bodily under water. The report 
fell in at the same instant of time. This was the 
first that Jim heard, the sound of the squire’s shot 
not having reached him. Where the ball passed, 
not one of us precisely knew ; but I fancy it must 
have been over our heads, and that the wind of 
may have contributed to our disaster. 


TREASUHa ISLAND, 


141 


At any rate, the boat sank by the stern, quite 
gently, in three feet of v?ater, leaving the captain 
and myself, facing each other, on our feet. The 
other three took complete headers, and came up 
again, drenched and bubbling. 

So far there was no great harm. No lives were 
lost, and we could wade ashore in safety. But there 
were all our stores at the bottom, and, to make 
things worse, only two guns out of five remained in 
a state for service. Mine I had snatched from my 
knees and held over my head, by a sort of instinct. 
As for the captain, he had carried his over his 
shoulder by a bandoleer, and, like a wise man, lock 
uppermost. The other three had gone down with 
the boat. 

To add to our concern, we heard voices already 
drawing near us in the woods along shore ; and we 
had not only the danger of being cut off from the 
stockade in our half-crippled state, but the fear 
before us whether, if Hunter and Jocye were at- 
tacked by half a dozen, they would have the sense 
and conduct to stand firm. Hunter was steady, 
that we knew ; Joyce was a doubtful case 
— a pleasant, polite man for a valet, and to brush 
one’s clothes, but not entirely fitted for a man 
of war. 

With all this in our minds, we waded ashore as 
fast as we could, leaving behind us the poor jolly- 
boat, and a good half of all our powder and provi- 
sions. 


142 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


CHAPTEE XYIIL 

NAJIRATIVE CONTINUED BY THE DOCTOR ; END OF THE 
FIRST day’s fighting. 

We made our best speed across the strip of wood 
that now divided us from the stockade ; and at every 
step we took the voices of the buccaneers rang 
nearer. Soon we could hear their footfalls as they 
ran, and the cracking of the branches as they 
breasted across a bit of thicket. 

I began to see we should have a brush for it in 
earnest, and looked to my priming. 

“ Captain,” said I, “ Trelawney is the dead shot. 
Give him your gun ; his own is useless.” 

They exchanged guns, and Trelawney, silent and 
cool as he had been since the beginning of the bus- 
tle, hung a moment on his heel to see that all was 
fit for service. At the same time, observing Gray 
to be unarmed, 1 handed him my cutlass. It did all 
our hearts good to see him spit in his hand, knit his 
brows, and make the blade sing through the air. It 
was plain from every line of his body that our new 
hand was worth his salt. 

Forty paces farther we came to the edge of the 
wood and saw the stockade in front of us. We 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


143 


Struck the enclosure about the middle of the south 
side, and almost at the same time, seven mutineers 
— Job Anderson, the boatswain, at their head — ap 
peared in full cry at the southwestern corner. 

They paused, as if taken aback ; and before they 
recovered, not only the squire and I, but Hunter and 
Joyce from the blockhouse, had time to fire. The 
four shots came in rather a scattering volley ; but 
they did the business : one of the enemy actually 
fell, and the rest, without hesitation, turned and 
plunged into the trees 

After reloading, we walked down the outside of 
the palisade to see to the fallen enemy. He was 
stone dead— shot through the heart. 

We began to rejoice over our good success, when 
just at that moment a pistol cracked in the bush, a 
ball whistled close past my ear, and poor Tom Ked- 
ruth stumbled and fell his length on the ground. 
Both the squire and I returned the shot ; but as we 
had nothing to aim at, it is probable we only wasted 
powder. Then we reloaded, and turned our atten- 
tion to poor Tom. 

The captain and Gray were already examining 
him ; and I saw with half an eye that all was over. 

I believe the readiness of our return volley had 
scattered the mutineers once more, for we were 
suffered without further molestation to get the poor 
old gamekeeper hoisted over the stockade, and car- 
ried, groaning and bleeding, into the log-house. 

Poor old fellow, he had not uttered one word of 
surprise, complaint, fear, or even acquiescence, from 


144 


1BEA8UBE ISLAND. 


the very beginning of our troubles till now, when 
we had laid him down in the log-house to die. He 
had lain like a Trojan behind his mattress in the 
gallery ; he had followed every order silently, dog- 
gedly, and well ; he was the oldest of our party by 
a score of years ; and now, sullen, old, serviceable 
servant, it was he that was to die. 

The squire dropped down beside him on his knees 
and kissed his hand, crying like a child. 

“ Be I going, doctor he asked. 

“ Tom, my man,” said I, “ you’re going home.” 

“ I wish I had had a lick at them with the gun 
first,” he replied. 

“Tom,” said the squire, “say you forgive me, 
won’t you ?” 

“Would that be respectful like, from me to you, 
squire?” was the answer. “Howsoever, so be it, 
amen !” 

After a little while of silence, he said he thought 
somebody might read a prayer. “ It’s the custom, 
sir,” he added apologetically. And not long after, 
without another word, he passed away. 

In the meantime the captain, whom I had observed 
to be wonderfully swollen about the chest and 
pockets, had turned out a great many various stores 
— the British colors, a Bible, a coil of stoutish rope, 
pen, ink, the log-book, and pounds of tobacco. He 
had found alongish fir tree lying felled and trimmed 
in the enclosure, and, with the help of Hunter, he 
had set it up at the corner of the log-house where 
the trunks crossed and made an angle- Then, climb- 


tbeAsuhe island. 


145 


ing on the roof, he had with his own hand bent and 
run up the colors. 

This seemed mightily to relieve him. He re-en- 
tered the log-house, and set about counting up the 
stores, as if nothing else existed. But he had an 
eye on Tom’s passage for all that ; and as soon as 
all was over, came forward with another flag, and 
reverently spread it on the body. 

“ Don’t you take on, sir,” he said, shaking the 
squire’s hand. “ All’s well with him ; no fear for 
a hand that’s been shot down in his duty to captain 
and owner. It mayn’t be good divinity, but it’s a 
fact.” 

Then he pulled me aside. 

* Dr. Livesey,” he said, “in how many weeks do 
you and squire expect the consort ?” 

I told him it was a question, not of weeks, but of 
months ; that if we were not back by the end of 
August, Blandly was to send to find us ; but neither 
sooner nor later. “ You can calculate for yourself,’^ 
I said. 

“ Why, yes,” returned the captain, scratching his 
head, “ and making a large allowance, sir, for all 
the gifts of Providence, I should say we were pretty 
close hauled.” 

“ How do you mean ?” I asked. 

“ It’s a pity, sir, we lost that second load. That’s 
what I mean,” replied the captain. “ As for powder 
and shot, we’ll do. But the rations are short, very 
short — so short. Dr. Livesey, that we’re, perhaps, a? 
well without that extra mouth.” 


146 


TREASURE ISLAJ^B 


And lie pointed to the dead body under the 
flag. 

Just then, with a roar and a whistle, a round shot 
passed high above the roof of the log-house and 
plumped far beyond us in the wood. 

Oho!” said the captain. Blaze away ! You’ve * 
little enough powder already, my lads.” 

At the second trial the aim was better, and the 
ball descended inside the stockade, scattering a cloud 
of sand, but doing no further damage. 

‘‘ Captain,” said the squire, “ the house is quite 
invisible from the ship. It must be the flag they are 
aiming at. Would it not be wiser to take it in ?” 

“ Strike my colors I” cried the captain. “ I^o, sir. 
not I ;” and, as soon as he had said the words, I think 
we all agreed with him. For it was not only a 
piece of stout, seamanly good feeling ; it was good 
policy besides, and showed our enemies that we de- 
spised their cannonade. 

All through the evening they kept thundering 
away. Ball after baU flew over or fell short, or 
kicked up the sand in the enclosure ; but they 
had to Are so high that the shot fell dead and buried 
itself in the soft sand. We had no ricochet to fear ; 
and though one popped in through the roof of the 
log-house and out again through the floor, we soon 
got used to that sort of horse-play, and minded it nc 
more than cricket. 

“ There is one thing good about all this,” observed 
the captain : “ the wood in front of us is likely clear. 
Ti e ehb has made a good while ; our store* 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


147 


should be uncovered. Volunteers to go and bring 
in pork.” 

Gray and Hunter were the first to come forward. 
Well armed, they stole out of the stockade ; but it 
proved a useless mission. The mutineers were 
bolder than we fancied, or they put more trust in 
Israel’s gunnery. For four or five of them were 
busy carrying off our stores, and wading out with 
them to one of the gigs that lay close by, pulling an 
oar or so to hold her steady against the current. 
Silver was in the stern-sheets in command ; and 
every man of them was now provided with a 
musket from some secret magazine ^ of their 
own. 

The captain sat down to his log, and here is the 
beginning of the entry ; 

“Alexander Smollett, master; David Livesey, 
ship’s doctor ; Abraham Gray, carpenter’s mate * 
John Trelawney, owner ; John Hunter and Richard 
Joyce, owner’s servants, landsmen — being all that 
is left faithful of the ship’s company — with stores 
for ten days at short rations, came ashore this day, 
land fiew British colors on the log-house in Treas- 
ure Island. Thomas Redruth, owner’s servant, 
landsman, shot by the mutineers ; James Hawkins, 
cabin-boy ” 

And at the same time I was wondering over poor 
Jim Hawkins’ fate. 

A hail on the land side. 

“ Somebody hailing us,” said Hunter, who was on 
guard. 


148 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


Doctor ! squire ! captain I Hullo, Hunter, is 
that you ?” came the cries. 

And I ran to the door in time to see Jim Haw 
kins, safe and sound, come climbing over tko 
idi!X)okadd. 


TREASURE I8LANR, 


14 ^ 


CHAPTER XIX 

NARRATIVE RESUMED BY JIM HAWKINS : THE GARRISON 
IN THE STOCKADE. 

As SOON as Ben Gunn saw the colors he came to a 
Iialt, stopped me by the arm, and sat down. 

“How,” said he, “there’s your friends, sure 
enough.” 

“Far more likely, it’s the mutineers,” I answered. 

“ That !” he cried. “ Why, in a place like this, 
where nobody puts in but gen’lemen of fortune. Sil- 
ver would fly the J oily Roger, you don’t make no 
doubt of that. Xo; that’s your friends. There’s 
been blows, too, and I reckon your friends has had 
the best of it ; and here they are ashore in the old 
stockade, as was made years and years ago by Flint. 
Ah ! he was the man to have a headpiece, was 
Flint ! Barring rum, his match were never seen. He 
were afraid of none, not he ; on’y Silver — Silver was 
that genteel.” 

“ Well,” said I, “ that may be so, and so be it ; all 
the more reason that I should hurry on and join my 
friends.” 

“ Nay, mate,” returned Ben, “ not you. You’re a 


150 


THE MERRY MEN. 


good boy, or I^m mistook; but yoii^re on’y a boy, 
all told. Now, Ben Gunn is fly. Bum wouldnH 
bring me there, where you’re going — not rum 
wouldn’t, till I see your born gen’lemen, and gets it 
on his word of honor. And you won’t forget my 
words: precious sight (that’s what you’ll say), 

a precious sight more confidence ’ — and then nips 
him.” 

And he pinched me the third time with the same 
air of cleverness. 

And when Ben Gunn is wanted, you know 
where to find him, Jim. Just where you found him 
to-day. And him that comes is to have a white 
thing in his hand: and he’s to come alone. Oh! 
and you’ll say this : ^ Ben Gunn,’ says you, ^ has 
reasons of his own.’ ” 

Well,” said I, “ I believe I understand. You 
have something to propose, and you wish to see the 
squire or the doctor; and you’re to be found where 
I found you. Is that all ? ” 

And when ? says you,” he added. Why, from 
about noon observation to about six bells.” 

Good,” said I, and now may I go ? ” 

You won’t forget ? ” he inquired anxiously. 

Precious sight, and reasons of his own, says you. 
Beasons of his own ; that’s the mainstay ; as between 
man and man. Well, then ” — still holding me — I 
reckon you can go, Jim. And, Jim, if you was to 
see Silver, you wouldn’t go for to sell Ben Gunn? 
wild horses wouldn’t draw it from you? No, says 
you. And if them pirates camp ashore, Jim, what 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


151 


would you say but there’d be widders in the 
morning 

Here he was interrupted by a loud report, and a 
cannon ball came tearing through the trees and 
pitched in the sand, not a hundred yards from where 
we two were talking. The next moment each of us 
had taken to his heels in a different direction. 

For a good hour to come frequent reports shook 
the island, and balls kept crashing through the 
woods. I moved from hiding-place to hiding-place, 
always pursued, or so it seemed to me, bj^ these ter- 
rifying missiles. But toward the end of the bom- 
bardment, though still I durst not venture in the 
direction of the stockade, where the balls fell often- 
est, I had begun, in a manner, to pluck up my heart 
again ; and after a long detour to the east, crept 
down among the shore-side trees. 

The sun had just set, the sea breeze was rustling 
and tumbling in the woods, and ruffling the gray 
surface of the anchorage ; the tide, too, was far 
out, and great tracts of sand lay uncovered : the air, 
after the heat of_ the day, chilled me through my 
jacket. 

The Hispaniola still lay where she had anchored ; 
but, sure enough, there was the Jolly Kogei — the 
black flag of piracy — flying from her peak. Even 
as I looked, there came another red flash and another 
report, that sent the echoes clattering, and one 
more round shot whistled through the air. It was 
the last of the cannonade. 

I lay for some time, watching the bustle which 


152 


TBEASUEE ISLAND. 


succeeded the attack. Men were demolishing some^ 
thing with axes on the beach near the stockade ; 
the poor jolly-boat, I afterward discovered. Away, 
near the mouth of the river, a great fire was glow- 
ing among the trees, and between that point and 
the ship one of the gigs kept coming and going, the 
men, whom I had seen so gloomy, shouting at the 
oars like children. But there was a sound in their 
voices which suggested rum. 

At length I thought I might return toward the 
stockade. I was pretty far down on the low, 
sandy spit that incloses the anchorage to the east, 
and is joined at half- water to Skeleton Island ; and 
now, as I rose to my feet, I saw, some distance 
further down the spit, and rising from among low 
bushes, an isolated rock, pretty high, and peculiarly 
white in color. It occurred to me that this might 
be the white rock of which Ben Gunn had spoken, 
and that some day or other a boat might 
be wanted, and I should know where to look for 
one. 

Then I skirted among the woods until I had 
regained the rear, or shoreward side, of the stock- 
ade, and was soon warmly welcomed by the faithful 
party. 

I had soon told my story, and began to look about 
me. The log-house was made of unsquared trunks 
of pine — roof, waUs, and fioor. The latter stood in 
several places as much as a foot or a foot and a half 
above the surface of the sand. There was a porch 
at the door, and under this porch the little spring 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


153 


tirelled up into an artificial basin of a rather odd 
dnd — no other than a great ship’s kettle of iron, 
with the bottom knocked out and sunk to “ her 
bearings ” as the captain said, among the sand. 

Little had been left beside the framework of the 
house ; but in one corner there was a stone slab 
laid down by way of hearth, and an old rusty iron 
basket to contain the fire. 

The slopes of the knoll and all the inside of the 
stockade had been cleared of timber to build the 
house, and we could see by the stumps what a fine 
and lofty grove had been destroyed. Most of the 
soil had been washed away or buried in drift after 
the removal of the trees ; only where the streamlet 
ran down from the kettle a thick bed of moss and 
seme ferns and little creeping bushes were still green 
among the sand. Yery close around the stockade 
— too close for defense, they said - the wood still 
flourished high and dense, all of fir on the land side, 
but toward the sea with a large admixture of live- 
oaks. 

The cold evening breeze, of which I have spoken, 
whistled through every chink of the rude building, 
and sprinkled the floor with a continual rain of fine 
sand. There was sand in our eyes, sand in our 
teeth, sand in our suppers, sand dancing in the spring 
at the bottom of the kettle, for all the world like 
porridge beginning to boil. Our chimney was a 
square hole in the roof ; it was but a little part of 
the smoke that found its way out, and the rest eddied 
about the house, and kept us coughing and wiping 
the eye. 


154 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


Add to this that Gray, the new man, had his face 
tied up in a bandage for a cut he had got in breaking 
away from the mutineers; and that poor old Tom 
Redruth, still unburied, lay along the wall, stiff and 
stark, under the Union Jack. 

If we had been allowed to sit idle, we should all 
have fallen in the blues, but Captain Smollet was 
never the man for that. All hands were called up 
before him, and he divided us into watches. The 
doctor, and Gray, and I, for one ; the squire, Hunter, 
and Joyce, upon the other. Tired though we all 
were, two were sent out for firewood ; two more 
were set to dig a grave for Redruth ; the doctor was 
named cook ; I was put sentry at the door ; and the 
captain himself went from one to another, keeping 
up our spirits and lending a hand wherever it was 
wanted. 

From time to time the doctor came to the door 
for a little air and to rest his eyes, which were almost 
smoked out of his head ; and whenever he did so, he 
had a word for me. 

“ That man Smollett,” he said once, “ is a better 
man than I am. And when I say that it means a 
deal, Jim.” 

Another time he came and was silent for awhile. 
Then he put his head on one side, and looked at me. 

‘‘ Is this Ben Gunn a man ?” he asked. 

“ I do not know, sir,” said I. ‘‘ I am not very sure 
whether he’s sane.” 

“ If there’s any doubt about the matter, he is,” 
returned the doctor. A man who has been three 


TBEA8URE ISLAND. 


155 


years biting his nails on a desert island, Jim, can’t 
expect to appear as sane as you or me. It doesn’t 
lie in human nature. Was it cheese you said he had 
a fancy for ?” 

“ Yes, sir, cheese,” I answered. 

“Well, Jim,” says he, “just see the good that 
comes of being dainty in your food. You’ve seen 
my snuff-box, haven’t you ? And you never saw me 
take snuff ; the reason being that in my snuff-box 
I carry a piece of Parmesan cheese — a cheese made 
in Italy, very nutritious. Well, that’s for Ben 
Gunn !” 

Before supper was eaten we buried old Tom in 
the sand, and stood round him for awhile bare- 
headed in the breeze. A good deal of firewood had 
been got in, but not enough for the captain’s fancy; 
and he shook his head over it, and told us we 
“ must get back to this to morrow rather livelier.” 
Then, when we had eaten our pork, and each had a 
good stiff glass of brandy grog, the three chiefs got 
together in a corner to discuss our prospects. 

It appears they were at their wit’s end what to 
do, the stores being so low that we must have been 
starved into surrender long before help came. But 
our best hope, it was decided, was to kill off the 
buccaneers until they either hauled down their flag 
or ran away with the Hispaniola. From nineteen 
they were already reduced to fifteen, two others 
were wounded, and one, at least — the man shot 
beside the gun — severely wounded, if he were not 
dead. Every time we had a crack at them, we were 


156 


TMEASURE ISLAND. 


to take it, saving our own lives, with the extremes! 
care. And, besides that, we had two able allies— 
rum and the climate. 

As for the first, though we were about half a mile 
away, we could hear them roaring and singing late 
into the night; and as for the second, the doctor 
staked his wig that, camped where they were in the 
marsh, and unprovided with remedies, the half of 
them would be on their backs before a week. 

‘‘ So,” he added, “ if we are not all shot down first 
they’ll be glad to be packing in the schooner. It’s 
always a ship, and the}’' can get to buccaneering 
again, I suppose.” 

“ First ship that ever I lost,” said Captain 
Smollett. 

I was dead tired, as you may fancy ; and when I 
got to sleep, which was not till after a great deal of 
tossing, I slept like a log of wood. 

The rest had long been up, and had already 
breakfasted and increased the pile of firewood by 
about half as much again, when I was wakened by 
a bustle and the sound of voices. 

“ Flag of trace !” I heard some one say ; and then, 
immediately after, with a cry of surprise, “ Silver 
himself !” 

And, at that, up I jumped, and, rubbing my eyes, 
ran to a loophole in the wall. 


TUEAlSUME ISLAND. 


157 


CHAPTEK XX. 
silver’s embassy. 

Sure enough, there were two men just outside 
the stockade, one of them waving a white cloth ; 
the other, no less a person than Silver himself, 
standing placidly by. 

It was still quite early, and the coldest morning 
that I think I ever was abroad in ; a chill that 
pierced into the marrow. The sky was bright and 
cloudless overhead, and the tops of the trees shone 
rosily in the sun. But where Silver stood with his 
lieutenant all was still in shadow, and they waded 
knee deep in a low white vapor, that had crawled 
during the night out of the morass. The chill and 
the vapor taken together told a poor tale of the 
island. It was plainly a damp, feverish, unhealthy 
spot. 

“ Keep indoors, men,” said the captain. “ Ten to 
©ne this is a trick.” 

Then he hailed the buccaneer. 

“ Who goes ? Stand, or we fire.” 

“ Flag of truce,” cried Silver. 

The captain was in the porch, keeping himself 


158 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


carefully out of the way of a treacherous shot 
should any be intended. He turned and spoke to 
us : 

“ Doctor’s watch on the lookout. Dr. Livesey 
take the north side, if you please ; Jim, the east ; 
Gray, west. The watch below, all hands to load 
muskets. Lively, men, and careful.” 

And then he turned again to the mutineers. 

“ And what do you want with your flag of truce ?” 
he cried. 

This time it was the other man who replied. 

“ Cap’n Silver, sir, to come on board and make 
terms,” he shouted. 

“ Cap’n Silver ! Don’t know him. Who’s he ?” 
cried the captain. And we could hear him adding 
to himself : “ Cap’n, is it ? My heart, and here’s pro- 
motion !” 

Long John answered for himself. 

“ Me, sir. These poor lads have chosen me cap’n, 
after your desertion, sir” — laying a particular empha- 
sis upon the word “ desertion.” “We’re willing to sub- 
mit, if we can come to terms, and no bones about it. 
All I ask is your word, Cap’n Smollett, to let me 
safe and sound out of this here stockade, and one 
minute to get out o’ shot before a gun is fired.” 

“ My man,” said Captain Smollett, “ I have not 
the slightest desire to talk to you. If you wish to 
talk to me, you can come, that’s all. If there’s any 
treachery it ’ll be on your side, and the Lord help 
you.” 

“That’s enough, cap’n,” shouted Long John 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


15 ^ 


cheerily. “ A word from you’s enough. I know a 
gentleman and you may lay to that.” 

We could see the man who carried the flag of 
truce attempting to hold Silver back. Nor was that 
wonderful, seeing how cavalier had been the captain’s 
answer. But Silver laughed at him aloud and 
slapped him on the back, as if the idea of alarm had 
been absurd. Then he advanced to the stockade, 
threw over his crutch, got a leg up, and with great 
vigor and skill succeeded in surmounting the fence 
and dropping safely to the other side. 

I will confess that I was far too much taken up 
with what was going on to be of the slightest use as 
sentry ; indeed, I had already deserted my eastern 
loophole and crept up behind the captain, who had 
now seated himself on the threshold, with his elbows 
on his knees, his head in his hands, and his eyes 
fixed on the water, as it bubbled out of the old iron 
kettle in the sand. He was whistling to himself, 
“ Come, Lasses and Lads.” 

Silver had terrible hard work getting up the knoll. 
What with the steepness of the incline, the thick 
tree stumps and the soft sand, he and his crutch 
were as helpless as a ship in stays. But he stuck to 
it like a man in silence, and at last arrived before 
the captain, whom he saluted in the handsomest 
style. He was tricked out in his best ; an immense 
blue coat, thick with brass buttons, hung as low as 
to his knees, and a flne laced hat was set on the 
back of his head. 

“ Here you are, my man,” said the captain, raising 
his head. “ You hadj)etter sit down.” 


160 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


“ You ain’t a-going to let me inside, cap’n com- 
plained Long John. ‘‘ It’s a main cold morning to 
be sure, sir, to sit outside upon the sand.” 

“ Why, Silver,” said the captain, “ if you had 
pleased to be an honest man, you might have been 
sitting in your galley. It’s your own doing. 
You’re either my ship’s cook — and then you were 
treated handsome — or Cap’n Silver, a common 
mutineer and pirate, and then you can go hang !” 

“Well, well, cap’n,” returned the sea cook, sitting 
down as he was bidden on the sand, “ you’ll have 
to give me a hand up again, that’s all. A sweet 
pretty place you have of it here. Ah, there’s Jim ! 
The top of the morning to you, Jim. Doctor, here’s 
my service. Why, there you all are together like a 
happy family, in a manner of speaking.” 

“ If you have anything to say, my man, better 
say it,” said the captain. 

“ Eight you were, Cap’n Smollett,” replied Silver. 
“Dooty is dooty, to be sure. Well, now, you look 
here, that was a good lay of yours last night. I 
don’t deny it was a good lay. Some of you pretty 
handy with a handspike-end. And I’ll not deny 
neither but what some of my people was shook— 
maybe all was shook ; maybe I was shook myself ; 
maybe that’s why I’m here for terms. But you 
mark me, cap’n, it won’t do twice, by thunder! 
We’ll have to do sentry-go, and ease off a point or 
so on the rum. Maybe you think we were all a 
sheet in the wind’s eye. But I’ll tell you I was 
sober ; I was on’y dog tired ; and if I’d awoke a 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


161 


second sooner I’d a’ caught you at the act, I would. 
He wasn’t dead when I got round to him, not he.” 

“Well?” says Captain SmoUett, as cool as 
can be. 

All that Silver said was a riddle to him, but you 
would never have guessed it from his tone. As for 
me, I began to have an inkling. Ben Gunn’s last 
words came back to my mind. I began to suppose 
that he had paid the buccaneers a visit while they 
all lay drunk together round their fire, and I reck- 
oned up with glee that we had only fourteen enemies 
to deal with. 

“ Well, here it is,” said Silver. “We want that 
treasure, and we’ll have it — that’s our point! You 
would just as soon save your lives, I reckon ; and 
that’s yours. You have a chart, haven’t you ?” 

“ That’s as may be,” replied the captain. 

“ Oh, well, you have, I know that,” returned 
Long John. “ You needn’t be so husky with a 
man ; there ain’t a particle of service in that, 
and you may lay to it. What I mean is, we want 
your chart. How, I never meant you no harm, 
myself.” 

“ That won’t do with me, my man,” interrupted 
the captain. “We know exactly what you meant 
to do, and we don’t care ; for now, you see, you 
can’t do it.” 

And the captain looked at him calmly, and pro- 
ceeded to fill a pipe. 

“ If Abe Gray ” Silver broke out. 

“ Avast there 1” cried Mr. Smollett. “ Gray told 


162 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


me nothing, and I asked him nothing ; and what’s 
more I -would see you and him and this whole 
island blown clean out of the water into blazes 
first. So there’s ray mind for you, my man, on 
that. 

This little whiff of temper seemed to cool Silver 
down. He had been growing nettled before, but 
now he pulled himself together. 

“ Like enough,” said he. “ I would set no limits 
to what gentlemen might consider shipshape, or 
might not, as the case were. And, seein’ as how 
you are about to take a pipe, cap’n. I’ll make so free 
as do likewise.” 

And he filled a pipe and lighted it ; and the two 
men sat silently smoking for quite a while, now look- 
ing each other in the face, now strT/">ing their 
tobacco, now leaning forward to spit. IX was as 
good as the play to see them. 

“ Now,” resumed Silver, “ here it is. You give us 
the chart to get the treasure by, and drop shooting 
poor seamen, and stoving of their heads in while 
asleep. You do that, and we’ll offer you a choice. 
Either you come aboard along of us, once the treas- 
ure shipped, and then I’ll give you my affydavy, 
upon my word of honor, to clap you somewhere safe 
ashore. Or, if that ain’t to your fancy, some of my 
hands being rough, and having old scores, on ac- 
count of hazing, then you can stay here, you can. 
We’ll divide stores with you, man for man ; and I’ll 
give my affydavy, as before, to speak the first ship 
I sight, and send ’em here to pick you up. Now 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


163 


you’ll own that’s talking. Handsomer you couldn’t 
look to get, not you. And I hope” — raising his 
voice — ‘‘ that all hands in this here blockhouse will 
overhaul my words, for what is spoke to one is 
spoke to all.” 

Captain Smollett rose from his seat, and knocked 
out the ashes of his pipe in the palm of his left 
haikd. 

“ Is that all ?” he asked. 

“Every last word, by thunder!” answered John. 
“ Eefuse that, and you’ve seen the last of me but 
musket-balls.” 

“ Very good,” said the captain. “ How you’ll 
hear me. If you’ll come up one by one, unarmed, 
I’ll engage to clap you all in irons, and take you 
home to a fair trial in England. If you won’t, my 
name is Alexander Smollett, I’ve flown my sover- 
eign’s colors, and I’ll see you all to Davy Jones. 
You can’t find the treasure. You can’t sail the ship 
— there’s not a man among you fit to sail the ship. 
You can’t fight us — Gray, there, got away from five 
of you. Your ship’s in irons. Master Silver; you’re 
on a lee shore, and so you’ll find. I stand here and 
tell you so ; and they’re the last good words you’U 
get from me ; for, in the name of heaven. I’ll put a 
bullet in your back when next I meet you. Tramp, 
my lad. Bundle out of this, please, hand over hand, 
and double quick.” 

Silver’s face was a picture ; his eyes started in his 
head with wrath. He shook the fire out of his pipe. 

“ Give me a hand up !” he cried. 


164 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


“ Not I,” returned the captain. 

“ Who’ll give me a hand up he roared. 

Not a man among us moved. Growling the foul- 
est imprecations, he crawled along the sand till he 
got hold of the porch and could hoist himself again 
upon his crutch. Then he spat into the spring. 

“ There !” he cried, ‘‘ that’s what I think of ye. 
Before an hour’s out. I’ll stove in your old block- 
house like a rum puncheon. Laugh, by thunder, 
laugh ! Before an hour’s out, ye’ll laugh upon the 
other side. Them that die ’ll be the lucky ones.” 

And with a dreadful oath he stumbled off, plowed 
down the sand, was helped across the stockade, after 
four or five failures, by the man with the flag of 
truce, and disappeared in an instant afterward 
among the trees. 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


165 


CHAPTEE XXI. 

THE ATTACK. 

As SOON as Silver disappeared, the captain, who 
had been closel}^ watching him, turned toward the 
interior of the house, and found not a man of us at 
his post but Gray. It was the first time we had 
ever seen him angry. 

“ Quarters !” he roared. And then, as we all 
slunk back to our places, “ Gray,” he said, “ I’ll put 
your name in the log ; you’ve stood by your duty 
like a seaman. Mr. Trelawney, I’m surprised at 
you, sir. Doctor, I thought you had worn the 
king’s coat ! If that was how you served at 
Fontenoy, sir, you’d have been better in your berth.” 

The doctor’s watch were all back at their loopholes, 
the rest were busy loading the spare muskets, and 
every one with a red face, you may be certain, and 
a flea in his ear, as the saying is. 

The captain looked on for awhile in silence. 
Then he spoke. 

‘‘My lads,” said he, “I’ve given Silver a broad- 
side. I pitched it in red-hot on purpose ; and be- 
fore the hour’s out, as he said, we shall be boarded. 
We’re outnumbered, I needn’t tell you that, but we 


166 


TBEASUBE ISLAND, 


fight in shelter; and, a minute ago, I should have 
said we fought with discipline. I’ve no manner of 
doubt that we can drub them, if you choose.” 

Then he went the rounds, and saw, as he said, 
that all was clear. 

On the two short sides of the house, east and west, 
there were only two loopholes ; on the south side 
where the porch was, two again ; and on the north 
side, five. There was a round score of muskets for 
the seven of us ; the firewood had been built into 
four piles — tables, you might say — one about the 
middle of each side, and on each of these tables 
some ammunition and four loaded muskets were laid 
ready to the hand of the defenders. In the middle, 
the cutlasses lay ranged. 

“ Toss out the fire,” said the captain ; the chill is 
past, and we mustn’t have smoke in our eyes.” 

The iron fire basket was carried bodily out by Mr. 
Trelawney, and the embers smothered among sand. 

“ Hawkins hasn’t had his breakfast. Hawkins, 
help yourself, and back to your post to eat it,” con- 
tinued Captain Smollett. “ Lively, now, my lad ; 
you’ll want it before you’ve done. Hunter, serve 
out a round of brandy to all hands.” 

And while this was going on, the captain com- 
pleted, in his own mind, the plan of the defense. 

‘‘ Doctor, you will take the door,” he resumed. 

•‘See, and don’t expose yourself; keep within, 
and fire through the porch. Hunter, take the east 
side, there. Joyce, you stand by the west, my man. 
Mr. Trelawney, you are the best shot — you and 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


167 


Gray will take this long north side, with the five 
loopholes ; it’s there the danger is. If they can get 
up to it, and hre in upon us through our own ports, 
things would begin to look dirty. Hawkins, neither 
you nor I are much account at the shooting ; we’ll 
stand by to load and bear a hand.” 

As the captain had said, the chill was past. As 
soon as the sun had climbed above our girdle of 
trees, it fell with all its force upon the clearing, and 
drank up the vapors at a draught. Soon the sand 
was baking, and the resin melting in the logs of the 
blockhouse. Jackets and coats were flung aside ; 
shirts thrown open at the neck, and rolled up to the 
shoulders ; and we stood there, each at his post, in 
a fever of heat and anxiety. 

An hour passed away. 

“ Hang them !” said the captain. “ This is as dull 
as the doldrums. Gray, whistle for a wind.” 

And just at that moment came the first news of 
the attack. 

“ If you please, sir,” said Joyce, “ if I see any one 
am I to fire ?” 

‘‘ I told you so !” cried the captain. 

‘‘Thank you, sir,” returned Joyce, with the same 
quiet civility. 

Nothing followed for a time ; but the remark had 
set us all on the alert, straining ears and eyes — the 
musketeers with their pieces balanced in their hands, 
the captain out in the middle of the blockhouse, 
with his mouth very tight and a frown on his face. 

So some seconds passed, till suddenly Joyce 


168 


IREASVRE ISLAND. 


whipped up his musket and fired. The report had 
scarcely died away ere it was repeated and repeated 
from without in a scattering volley, shot behind 
shot, like a string of geese, from every side of the 
enclosure. Several bullets struck the log-house, 
but not one entered ; and, as the smoke cleared 
away and vanished, the stockade and the woods 
around it looked as quiet and empty as before. 
ISTot a bough waved, not the gleam of a musket- 
barrel betrayed the presence of our foes. 

“ Did you hit your man asked the captain. 

“ No, sir,” replied Joyce. “ I believe not, sir.” 

“Next best thing to tell the truth,” muttered 
Captain Smollett. “ Load his gun, Hawkins. How 
many should you say there were on your side, 
doctor ?” 

“ I know precisely,” said Dr. Livesey. “ Three 
shots were fired on this side. I saw the three fiashes 
—two close together — one farther to the west.” 

“ Three I” repeated the captain. “ And how many 
on yours, Mr. Trelawney ?” 

But this was not so easily answered. There had 
come many from the north — seven, by the squire’s 
computation; eight or nine, according to Gray. 
From the east and west only a single shot had been 
fired. It was plain, therefore, that the attack 
would be developed from the north, and that on the 
other three sides we were only to be annoyed by a 
show of hostilities. But Captain Smollett made no 
change in his arrangements. If the mutineers 
succeeded in crossing the stockade, he argued, they 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


169 


rould take possession of any unprotected loophole, 
And shoot us down like rats in our own strong- 
hold. 

Nor had we much time left to us for thought. 
Suddenly, with a loud huzza, a little cloud of pirates 
leaped from the woods on the north side, and ran 
straight on the stockade. At the same moment, the 
lire was once more opened from the woods, and a 
rifle- ball sang through the doorway, and knocked 
the doctor’s musket into bits. 

The boarders swarmed over the fence like 
monkeys. Squire and Gray fired again and yet 
again; three men fell, one forward into the en- 
closure, two back on the outside. But of these, one 
was evidently more frightened than hurt, for he 
was on his feet again in a crack, and instantly dis- 
appeared among the trees. 

Two had bit the dust, one had fled, four had made 
good their footing inside our defences ; while from 
the shelter of the woods seven or eight men, each 
evidently supplied with several muskets, kept up a 
hot though useless fire on the log-house. 

The four who had boarded made straight before 
them for the building, shouting as they ran, and the 
men among the trees shouted back to encourage 
them. Several shots were fired ; but, such was the 
hurry of the marksmen, that not one appears to 
have taken effect. In a moment the four pirates 
had swarmed up the mound and were upon us. 

The head of Job Anderson, the boatswain, ap^ 
peared at the middle loophole. 


170 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


“ At ’em, all hands — all hands !” he roared, in a 
voice of thunder. 

At the same moment another pirate grasped 
Hunter’s musket by the muzzle, wrenched it from 
his hands, plucked it through the loophole, and, with 
one stunning blow, laid the poor fellow senseless on 
the floor. Meanwhile, a third, running unharmed 
all round the house, appeared suddenly in the door- 
way and fell with his cutlass on the doctor. 

Our position was utterly reversed. A moment 
since we were firing under cover at an exposed 
enemy ; now it was we who lay uncovered and could 
not return a blow. 

The log-house was full of smoke, to which we 
owed our comparative safety. Cries and confusion, 
the flashes and reports of pistol shots and one loud 
groan rang in my ears. 

“ Out, lads, out, and fight ’em in the open ! Cut- 
lasses!” cried the captain. 

I snatched a cutlass from the pile and some one, 
at the same time snatching another, gave me a cut 
across the knuckles which I hardly felt. I dashed 
out of the door into the clear sunlight. Some one 
was close behind, I knew not whom. Right in front 
the doctor was pursuing his assailant down the hill, 
and just as my eyes fell upon him, beat down his 
guard and sent him sprawling on his back, with a 
great slash across the face. 

“ Round the house, lads I round the house 1” cried 
the captain ; and even in the hurly-burly I perceived 
a change in his voice. 

Mechanically J obeyed, turned eastward, and 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


with my cutlass raised ran round the corner of the 
house. Kext moment I was face to face with Anap 
derson. He roared aloud, and his hanger went 
up above his head, flashing in the sunlight. I had 
not time to be afraid, but as the blow still hung im- 
pending leaped in a trice upon one side, and missing 
my foot in the soft sand, rolled headlong down the 
slope. 

When I had flrst sallied from the door the other 
mutineers had been already swarming up the pali- 
sade to make an end of us. One man in a red night- 
cap, with his cutlass in his mouth, had even got upon 
the top and thrown a leg across. Well, so short 
had been the interval, that when I found my feet 
again all was in the same posture, the fellow with 
the red nightcap still halfway over, another still just 
showing his head above the top of the stockade. And 
yet, in this breath of time, the fight was over, and 
the victory was ours. 

Gray, following close behind me, had cut down 
the big boatswain ere he had time to recover from 
his lost blow. Another had been shot at a loophole 
in the very act of firing into the house, and now 
lay in agony, the pistol still smoking in his hand. 
A third, as I had seen, the doctor had disposed of 
at a blow. Of the four who had scaled the pali- 
sade, one only remained unaccounted for, and he, 
having left his cutlass on the field, was now 
clambering out again with the fear of death upon 
him. 

“ Fire — fire from the house !” cried the doctor, 
“ And you, lads, back into cover,^'' 


m 


tbeasuhe island. 


But his words were unheeded, no shot was fired, 
and the last boarder made good his escape, and disa- 
peared with the rest into the wood. In three 
seconds nothing remained of the attacking party but 
the five who had fallen, four on the inside, and one 
on the outside of the palisade. 

The doctor and Gray and I ran full speed for 
shelter. The survivors would soon be back where 
they had left their muskets, and at any moment the 
fire might recommence. 

The house was by this time somewhat cleared of 
smoke, and we saw at a glance the price we had 
paid for victory. Hunter lay beside his loophole, 
stunned ; Joyce, by his, shot through the head, 
never to move again ; while right in the center, the 
squire was supporting the captain, one as pale as 
the other. 

“ The captain’s wounded,” said Mr. Trelawney. 

“ Have they run ?” asked Mr. Smollett. 

“ All that could, you may be bound,” returned 
the doctor ; “ but there’s five of them will never run 
again.” 

“Five!” cried the captain. “Come, that’s bet- 
ter. Five against three leaves us four to nine. 
That’s better odds than we had at starting. We 
were seven to nineteen then, or thought we were, 
and that’s as bad to bear.” * 

♦ The mutineers were soon only eight in number, for the 
man shot by Mr. Trelawney on board the schooner died that 
same evening of his wound. But this was, of course, not 
known till after by the faithful party. 


PART V. 


MY SEA ADVENTURE 



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TREASURE ISLAND, 


175 


CHAPTEE XXIL 

HOW MY SEA ADVENTURE BEGAN. 

There was no return of the mutineers — not so 
much as another shot out of the woods. They had 
“ got their rations for that day,” as the captain put 
it, and we had the place to ourselves and a quiet 
time to overhaul the wounded and get dinner. 
Squire and I cooked outside in spite of the danger, 
and even outside we could hardly tell what we were 
at, foiT horror of the loud groans that reached us 
from the doctor’s patients. 

Out of the eight men who had fallen in the 
action, only three still breathed — that one of the 
pirates who had been shot at the loophole. Hunter, 
and Captain Smollett ; and of these the first two 
were as good as dead ; the mutineer, indeed, died 
under the doctor’s knife, and Hunter, do what we 
could, never recovered consciousness in this world. 
He lingered all day, breathing loudly like the old 
buccaneer at home in his apoplectic fit ; but the 
bones of his chest had been crushed by the blow and 
his skull fractured in falling, and some time in the 
following night, without sign or sound, he went to 
his Maker. 


170 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


n 

As for the captain, his wounds were grievous 
indeed, but not dangerous. No organ was fatally 
injured. Anderson’s ball — for it was Job that shot 
him first — had broken his shoulder-blade and 
touched the lung, not badl}^ ; the second had only 
torn and displaced some muscles in the calf. He 
was sure to recover, the doctor said, but, in the 
meantime and for weeks to come, he must not walk 
nor move his arm, nor so much as speak when he 
could help it. 

My own accidental cut across the knuckles was a 
flea-bite. Dr. Livesey patched it up with plaster 
and pulled my ears for me into the bargain. 

After dinner the squire and the doctor sat by the 
captain’s side awhile in consultation ; and when 
they had talked to their hearts’ content, it being 
then a little past noon, the doctor took up his hat 
and pistols, girt on a cutlass, put the chart in his 
pocket, and with a musket over his shoulder, crossed 
the palisade on the north side, and set off briskly 
through the trees. 

Gray and I were sitting together at the far end of 
the blockhouse, to be out of earshot of our officers 
consulting ; and Gray took his pipe out of his mouth 
and fairly forgot to put it back again, so thunder- 
struck he was at this occurrence. 

“ Why, in the name of Davy Jones,” said he, “ is 
Dr. Livesey mad 

“ Why, no,” says I. ‘‘ He’s about the last of this 
crew for that, I take it.” 

‘‘Well, shipmate,” said Gray, “mad he may not 
oe ; but if he^s not, you mark my words, I am."' 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


177 


I take it,” replied I, “ the doctor has his idea ; 
and if I am right, he’s going now to see Ben Gunn.” 

I was right, as appeared later ; but, in the mean^ 
time, the house being stifling hot, and the little patch 
of sand inside the palisade ablaze with midday sun, 
I began to get another thought into my head, which 
was not by any means so right. "What I began to 
do was to envy the doctor, walking in the cool 
shadow of the woods, with the birds about him, and 
the pleasant smell of the pines, while I sat grilling, 
with my clothes stuck to the hot resin, and so much 
blood about me, and so many poor dead bodies lying 
all around, that I took a disgust of the place that 
was almost as strong as fear. 

All the time I was washing out the blockhouse, 
and then washing up the things from dinner, this 
disgust and envy kept growing stronger and 
stronger, till at last, being near a bread-bag, and no 
one then observing me, I took the first step toward 
my escapade, and filled both pockets of my coat 
with biscuit. 

I was a fool, if you like, and certainly I was going 
to do a foolish, overbold act ; but I was determined 
to do it with all the precautions in my power. 
These biscuits, should anything befall me, would 
keep me, at least, from starving till far on in the 
next day. 

The next thing I laid hold of was a brace of pistols, 
and as I already had a powder-horn and bullets, I 
felt myself well supplied with arms. 

As for the scheme I had in my head, it was not a 


178 


TUEASUnE ISLAl^tf. 


bad one in itself. I was to go down the sandy spit 
that divides the anchorage on the east from the open 
sea, find the white rock I had observed last evening, 
and ascertain whether it was there or not that Ben 
Gimn had hidden his boat; a thing quite worth 
doing, as I still believe. But as I was certain I 
should not be allowed to leave the enclosure, my 
only plan was to take French leave, and slip out 
when nobody was watching ; and that was so bad a 
way of doing it as made the thing itself wrong. 
But I was only a boy, and I had made my mind up. 

Well, as things at last fell out, I found an admir- 
able opportunity. The squire and Gray were busy 
helping the captain with his bandages ; the coast 
was clear ; I made a bolt for it over the stockade 
and into the thickest of the trees, and before my 
absence was observed I was out of cry of my com 
pan ions. 

This was my second folly, far worse than the 
first, as I left but two sound men to guard the house; 
but like the first, it was a help toward saving all 
of us. 

I took my way straight for the east coast of the 
island, for I was determined to go down the sea side 
of the spit to avoid all chance of observation from 
the anchorage. It was already late in the afternoon, 
although still warm and sunn}^. As I continued to 
thread the tall woods I could hear from far before 
me, not onl}^ the continuous thunder of the surf, but 
a certain tossing of foliage and grinding of boughs 
which showed me the sea breeze had set in higher 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


179 


than usual. Soon cool draughts of air began to 
reach me ; and a few steps farther I came forth into 
the open borders of the grove, and saw the sea lying 
blue and sunny to the horizon, and the surf tumbling 
and tossing its foam along the beach. 

I have never seen the sea quiet round Treasure 
Island. The sun might blaze overhead, the air be 
without a breath, the surface smooth and blue, but 
still these great rollers would be running along all 
the external coast, thundering and thundering by 
day and night ; and I scarce believe there is one spot 
in the island where a man would be out of earshot 
of their noise. 

I walked along beside the surf with great enjoy- 
ment, till, thinking I was now got far enough to the 
south, I took the cover of some thick bushes, and 
crept warily up to the ridge of the spit. 

Behind me was the sea, in front the anchorage. 
The sea breeze, as though it had the sooner blown 
itself out by its unusual violence, was already at an 
end ; it had been succeeded by light, variable airs 
from the south and southeast, carrying great banks 
of fog ; and the anchorage, under lee of Skeleton 
Island, lay still and leaden as when first we entered 
it. The Hispaniola, in that unbroken mirror, was 
exactly portrayed from the truck to the water-line, 
the Jolly Koger hanging from her peak. 

Alongside lay one of the gigs, Silver in the stern 
sheets — him I could always recognize — while a 
couple of m«n were leaning over the stern bulwarks, 
one of them with a red cap — the very rogue that I 


180 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


had seen some hours before stride-legs upon the 
palisade. Apparently they were talking and laugh- 
ing, though at that distance — upward of a mile — 1 
could, of course, hear no word of what was said. 
All at once there began the most hon’id, unearthly 
screaming, which at first startled me badly, though 
I had soon remembered the voice of Captain Flint, 
and even thought I could make out the bird by her 
bright plumage as she sat perched upon her master’s 
wrist. 

Soon after the jolly-boat shoved off and pulled 
for shore, and the man with the red cap and his 
comrade went below by the cabin companion. 

Just about the same time the sun had gone down 
behind the Spyglass, and as the fog was collecting 
rapidly, it began to grow dark in earnest. I saw 
I must lose no time if I were to find the boat that 
evening. 

The white rock, visible enough above the brush, 
was still some eighth of a mile further down the 
spit, and it took me a goodish while to get up with 
it, crawling, often on all-fours, among the scrub. 
Night had almost come when I laid my hand on its 
rough sides. Eight below it there was an exceed- 
ingly small hollow of green turf, hidden by banks 
and a thick underwood about knee-deep, that grew 
there very plentifully ; and in the center of the dell, 
sure enough, a little tent of goatskins, like what the 
gipsies carry about with them in England. 

I dropped into the hollow, lifted the side of th© 
tent, and there was Ben Gunn’s boat — home-made if 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


181 


ever anything was home-made: a rude, lop-sided 
framework of tough wood and stretched upon that 
a covering of goatskin, with the hair inside. The 
thing was extremely small, even for me, and I can 
hardly imagine that it could have floated with a 
full-sized man. There was one thwart set as low as 
possible, a kind of stretcher in the bows, and a 
double paddle for propulsion. 

I had not then seen a coracle, such as the ancient 
Britons made, but I have seen one since, and I can 
give you no fairer idea of Ben Gunn’s boat than by 
saying it was like the first and the worst coracle ever 
made by man. But the great advantage of the 
coracle it certainly possessed, for it was exceedingly 
light and portable. 

Well, now that I had found the boat, you would 
have thought I had had enough of truantry for once ; 
but, in the meantime, 1 had taken another notion,, 
and become so obstinately fond of it that I would 
have carried it out, I believe, in the teeth of Captain 
Smollett himself. This was to slip out under cover 
of the night, cut the Hispaniola adrift and let her 
go ashore where she fancied. I had quite made up 
my mind that the mutineers, after their repulse of 
the morning, had nothing nearer their hearts than ta 
up anchor and away to sea ; this, I thought, it would 
be a fine thing to prevent, and now that I had seen 
how they left their watchmen unprovided with a 
boat I thought it might be done with little risk. 

Down I sat to wait for darkness, and made a 
hearty meal of biscuit. It was a night out of ten 


182 


theasure island. 


thousand for my purpose. The fog had now buried 
all heaven. As the last rays of daylight dwindled 
and disappeared, absolute blackness settled down on 
Treasure Island. And when at last I shouldered 
the coracle and groped my way stumblingly out of 
the hollow where I had supped, there were but two 
points visible on the whole anchorage. 

One was the great fire on shore, by which the de- 
feated pirates lay carousing in the swamp. The 
other, a mere blur of light upon the darkness, in- 
dicated the position of the anchored ship. She had 
swung round to the ebb — her bow was now toward 
me — the only lights on board were in the cabin; 
and what I saw was merel}^ a reflection on the fog 
of the strong rays that flowed from the stern 
window. 

The ebb had already run some time and I had to 
wade through a long belt of swampy sand, where I 
sank several times above the ankle, before I came 
to the edge of the retreating water, and wading a 
little way in, with some some strength and dexterity, 
set my coracle keel downward on the surface. 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


183 


CHAPTEE XXHL 

THE EBB TIDE RUNS. 

The coracle — as I had ample reason to know 
before I was done with her — was a very safe boat 
for a person of my height and weight, both buoyant 
and clever in a seaway ; but she was the most cross- 
grained lop-sided craft to manage. Do as you 
pleased, she always made more leeway than any- 
thing else, and turning round and round was the 
maneuver she was best at. Even Ben Gunn him- 
self has admitted that she was “ queer to handle till 
you knew her way.” 

Certainly I did not know her way. She turned 
in every direction but the one I was bound to go ; 
the most part of the time we were broadside on, and 
I am very sure I never should have made the ship 
at all but for the tide. By good fortune, paddle as 
1 pleased, the tide was still sweeping me down ; and 
there lay the Hispaniola right in the fair way, 
hardly to be missed. 

First she loomed before me like a blot of some* 
thing yet blacker than darkness, then her spars and 
hull began to take shape, and the next moment, as 
it seemed (for, the further I went, the brisker grew 


184 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


the current of the ebb), I was alongside of her 
hawser, and had laid hold. 

The hawser was as taut as a bowstring, and the 
current so strong she pulled upon her anchor. All 
round the hull, in the blackness, the rippling cur- 
rent bubbled and chattered like a little mountain 
stream. One cut with my sea-gully, and the 
Hispaniola would go humming down the tide. 

So far so good ; but it next occurred to my rec 
ollection that a taut hawser, suddenly cut, is a 
thing as dangerous as a kicking horse. Ten to one, 
if I were so foolhardy as to cut the Hispaniola from 
her anchor, I and the coracle would be knocked 
clean out of the water. 

This brought me to a full stop, and if fortune had 
not again particularly favored me, I should have 
had to abandon my design. But the light airs 
which had begun blowing from the southeast and 
south had hauled round after nightfall into the 
southwest. Just while I was meditating, a puff 
came, caught the Hispaniola, and forced her up 
into the current ; and, to my great joy, I felt the 
hawser slacken in my grasp, and the hand by which 
I held it dip for a second under water. 

With that I made my mind up, took out my gully, 
opened it with my teeth, and cut one strand after 
another, till the vessel swung only by two. Then I 
lay quiet, waiting to sever these last when the 
strain should be once more lightened by a breath of 
wind. 

All this time I had heard the sound of loud voices 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


185 


from the cabin ; but, to say truth, my mind had been 
so entirely taken up with other thoughts that 1 had 
scarcely given ear. ITow, however, when I had 
nothing else to do, I began to pay more heed. 

One I recognized for the coxswain’s, Israel Hands, 
that had been Flint’s gunner in former days. The 
other was, of course, my friend of the red nightcap. 
Both men were plainly the worse of drink, and they 
were still drinking ; for, even while I was listening, 
one of them, with a drunken cry, opened the stern 
window and threw out something, which I divined 
to be an empty bottle. But they were not only 
tipsy ; it was plain that they were furiously angry. 
Oaths flew like hailstones, and every now and then 
there came forth such an explosion as 1 thought was 
sure to end in blows. But each time the quarrel 
passed off, and the voices grumbled lower for a 
while, until the next crisis came, and, in its turn, 
passed away without result. 

On shore I could see the glow of the great camp- 
fire burning warmly through the shore-side trees. 
Some one was singing a dull, old' droning sailor’s 
song, with a droop and a quaver at the end of every 
verse, and seemingly no end to it at all but the 
patience of the singer. I had heard it on the voyage 
more than once, and remembered these words : 

** But one man of her crew alive, 

What put to sea with seventy-five.” 

And I thougnt it was a ditty rather too dolefully 
appropriate for a company that had met such cruel 


188 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


losses in the morning. But, indeed, from what 1 
saw, all these buccaneers were as callous as the sea 
they sailed on. 

At last the breeze came ; the schooner sidled and 
drew nearer in the dark ; I felt the hawser slacken 
once more, and with a good, tough effort, cut the 
last fibers through. 

The breeze had but little action on the coracle, 
and I was almost instantly swept against the bows 
of the Hispaniola. At the same time the schooner 
began to turn upon her heel, spinning slowly, end 
for end, across the current. 

I wrought like a fiend, for I expected every 
moment to be swamped ; and since I found I could 
not push the coracle directly off, I now shoved 
straight astern. At length I wa? clear of my dan- 
gerous neighbor ; and just as I ga'^o the last impul- 
sion, my hands came across a light cord that was 
trailing overboard across the sterr bulwarks. In- 
stantly I grasped it. 

Why I should have done so I can hardly say. It 
was at first mere instinct ; but once ) had it in my 
hands and found it fast, curiosity beg^ to get the 
upper hand, and I determined I should have one 
look through the cabin window. 

I pulled in hand over hand on the cord, and, when 
I judged myself near enough, rose at infinite risk to 
about half my height, and thus commanded the roof 
and a slice of the interior of the cabin. 

By this time the schooner and her little consort 
were gliding pretty swiftly through the water; 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


187 


indeed, we had already fetched up lev^el with the 
campfire. The ship was talking, as sailors say, 
loudly, treading the innumerable ripples with an 
incessant weltering splash ; and until I got my eye 
above the window-sill I could not comprehend why 
the watchmen had taken no alarm. One glance, 
however, was suflicient ; and it was only one glance 
that I durst take from that unsteady skiff. It 
showed me Hands and his companion locked together 
in deadly wrestle, each with a hand upon the other’s 
throat. 

I dropped upon the thwart again, none too soon, 
for I was near overboard. I could see nothing for 
the moment, but these two furious, encrimsoned 
faces, swaying together under the smoky lamp ; and 
I shut my eyes to let them grow once more familiar 
with the darkness. 

The endless ballad had come to an end at last, 
and the whole diminished company about the camp- 
fire had broken into the chorus I had heard so 
often ; 


^ Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest— 

Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum I 
Drink and the devil had done for the rest— 
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum I” 

I was just thinking how busy drink and the devil 
were at that very moment in the cabin of the His- 
paniola, when I was surprised by a sudden lurch of 
the coracle. At the same moment she j^awed 


188 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


sharply and seemed to change her course. The 
speed in the meantime had strangely increased. 

I opened my eyes at once. All round me were 
little ripples, combing over with a sharp, bristling 
sound, and slightly phosphorescent. The Hispam 
iola herself, a few yards in whose wake I was still 
being whirled along, seemed to stagger in her course, 
and I saw her spars toss a little against the blackness 
of the night ; nay, as 1 looked longer, I made sure 
she also was wheeling to the southward. 

I glanced over my shoulder, and my heart jumped 
against my ribs. There, right behind me, was the 
glow of the campfire. The current had turned 
at right angles, sweeping round along with it the 
tall schooner and the little dancing coracle; ever 
quickening, ever bubbling higher, ever muttering 
louder, it went spinning through the narrows for 
the open sea. 

Suddenly the schooner in front of me gave a 
violent yaw, turning, perhaps, through twenty 
degrees ; and almost at the same moment one shout 
followed another from on board ; I could hear feet 
pounding on the companion ladder; and I knew 
that the two drunkards had at last been interrupted 
in their quarrel and awakened to a sense of their 
disaster. 

1 lay down flat in the bottom of that wretc.aeG 
skiff, and devoutly recommended my spirit to its 
Maker. At the end of the straits, I made sure we 
must fall into some bar of raging breakers, where all 
my troubles would be ended speedily ; and though 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


18& 


I could, perhaps, bear to die, I could not bear ta 
look upon my fate as it approached. 

So I must have lain for hours, continually beaten 
to and fro upon the billows, now and again wetted 
with flying sprays, and never ceasing to expect 
death at the next plunge. Gradually weariness grew 
upon me ; a numbness, an occasional stupor, fell upon 
my mind even in the midst of my terrors ; until 
sleep at last supervened, and in my sea-tossed coracle 
I lay and dreamed of home and the old “ Adm-raJ 
Benbow.” 


190 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


CHAPTEE XXIV. 

THE CRUISE OF THE CORACLE. 

It was broad day when I awoke, and found my. 
self tossing at the southwest end of Treasure 
Island. The sun was up, but was still hid from me 
behind the great bulk of the Spyglass, which on 
this side descended almost to the sea in formidable 
cliffs. 

Haulbowline Head and Mizzenmast Hill were at 
my elbow ; the hill bare and dark, the head bound 
with cliffs forty or fifty feet high, and fringed with 
great masses of fallen rock. I was scarce a quarter 
of a mile to seaward, and it was my first thought to 
paddle in and land. 

That notion was soon given over. Among the 
fallen rocks the breakers spouted and bellowed ; 
loud reverberations, heavy sprays flying and falling, 
succeeded one another from second to second ; and 
I saw m^^self, if I ventured nearer, dashed to death 
upon the rough shore, or spending my strength in 
vain to scale the beetling crags. 

Hor was that all ; for crawling together on flat 
tables of rock, or letting themselves drop into the 
sea with loud reports, I beheld huge slimy monsters 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


191 


—soft snails, as it were, of incredible bigness — two 
or three-score of them together, making the rocks 
to echo with their barkinofs. 

I have understood since that they were sea lions, 
and entirely harmless. But the look of them added 
to the difficulty of the shore and the high running 
of the surf, was more than enough to disgust me of 
that landing place. I felt willing rather to starve 
at sea than to confront such perils. 

In the meantime I had a better chance, as I sup- 
posed, before me. ISTorth of Kaulbowline Head 
the land runs in a long way, leaving, at low tide, a 
long stretch of yellow sand. To the north of that, 
again, there comes another cape — Cape of the 
Woods, as it was marked upon the chart — buried in 
tall green pines, which descended to the margin of 
the sea. 

I remembered what Silver had said about the cur- 
rent that sets northward along the whole west coast 
of Treasure Island ; and seeing from my position 
that I was already under its influence, I preferred 
to leave Haulbowline Head behind me, and reserve 
my strength for an attempt to land upon the kind- 
lier-looking Cape of the Woods. 

There was a great, smooth swell upon the sea. 
The wind blowing steady and gentle from the south, 
there was no contrariety between that and the cur- 
rent, and the billows rose and fell unbroken. 

Had it been otherwise, I must long ago have per- 
ished ; but as it was, it is surprising how easily and 
securely my little and light boat could ride. Often, 


192 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


as I still lay at the bottom, and kept no more than 
an eye above the gunwale, I would see a big blue 
summit heaving close above me; yet the coracle 
would but bounce a little, dance as if on springs, 
and subside on the other side into the trough as 
lightly as a bird. 

I began after a little to grow very bold, and sat 
up to try my skill at paddling. But even a small 
change in the disposition of the weight will produce 
violent changes in the behavior of a coracle. And 
I had hardly moved before the boat, giving up at 
once her gentle dancing movement, ran straight down 
a slope of water so steep that it made me giddy, and 
stuck her nose, with a spout of spray, deep into the 
side of the next wave. 

I was drenched and terrified, and fell instantly 
back into my old position, whereupon the coracle 
seemed to find her head again, and led me as softly 
as before among the billows. It was plain she was 
not to be interfered with, and at that rate, since I 
could in no way influence her course, what hope had 
I left of reaching land ? 

I began to be horribly frightened, but I kept my 
head, for all that. First, moving with all care, I 
gradually baled out the coracle with my sea-cap; 
then getting my eye once more above the gunwale, 
I set myself to study how it was she managed to 
slip so quietly through the rollers. 

I found each wave, instead of the big, smooth, 
glossy mountain it looks from shore, or from a ves- 
seFs deck, was for all the world like any range of 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


193 


hills on the dry land, full of peaks and smooth places 
and valleys. The coracle, left to herself, turning 
from side to side, threaded, so to speak, her way 
through these lower parts, and avoided the steep 
slopes and higher, toppling summits of the waves. 

“Well, now,” thought I to myself, “it is plain I 
must lie where I am, and not disturb the balance; 
but it is plain, also, that I can put the paddle over 
the side, and from time to time, in smooth places, 
give her a shove or two toward land.” [N’o sooner 
thought upon than done. There I lay on my elbows, 
in the mosD trying attitude, and every now and 
again gave a weak stroke or two to turn her head 
to shore. 

It was very tiring, and slow work, yet I did visibly 
gain ground ; and, as we drew near the Cape of the 
Woods, though I saw I must infallibly miss that 
point, I had still made some hundred yards of east- 
ing. I was, indeed, close in. I could see the cool, 
green tree tops swaying together in the breeze, and 
I felt sure I should make the next promontory with- 
out fail. 

It was high time, for I now began to be tortured 
with thirst. The glow of the sun from above, its 
thousandfold reflection from the waves, the sea-water 
that fell and dried upon me, caking my very lips 
with salt, combined to make my throat burn and my 
brain ache. The sight of the trees so near at hand 
had almost made me sick with longing ; but the cur- 
rent had soon carried me past the point ; and, as 
the next reach of sea opened out, I beheld a sight 
that changed the^ nature of my thoughts. 


194 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


Eight in front of me, not half a mile away, 1 
beheld the Rispaniola under sail. I made sure, of 
course, that 1 should be taken ; but I was so dis- 
tressed for want of water, that I scare knew whether 
to be glad or sorry at the thought ; and, long before 
1 had come to a conclusion, surprise had taken en^ 
tire possession of my mind, and I could do nothing 
but stare and wonder. 

The Hispaniola was under her mainsail and two 
jibs, and the beautiful white canvas shone in the 
sun like snow or silver. When I first sighted her, 
all her sails were drawing ; she was lying a course 
about northwest; and I presumed the men on board 
were going round the island on their way back to 
the anchorage. Presently she began to fetch more 
and more to the westward, so that I thought they 
had sighted me and were going about in chase. At 
last, however, she fell right into the wind’s eye, 
was taken dead aback, and stood there awhile help- 
less, with her sails shivering. 

Clumsy fellows,” said I ; they must still be 
drunk as owls.” And I thought how Captain 
Smollett would have set them skipping. 

Meanwhile, the schooner gradually fell ofi, and 
filled again upon another tack, sailed swiftly for a 
minute or so, and brought up once more dead in the 
wind’s eye. Again and again was this repeated. 
To and fro, up and down, north, south, east, and 
west, the Hispaniola sailed by swoops and dashes, 
and eacli repetition ended as she had begun, with 
idly-flapping canvas. It became plain to me that 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


195 


nobody was steering. And, if so, where were the 
men ? Either they were dead drunk, or had deserted 
her, I thought, and perhaps if I could get on board, 
I might return the vessel to her captain. 

The current was bearing coracle and schooner 
southward at an equal rate. As for the latter’s 
sailing, it was so wild and intermittent, and she 
hung each time so long in irons, that she certainly 
gained nothing, if she did not even lose. If only I 
dared to sit up and paddle, I made sure that I could 
overhaul her. The scheme had an air of adventure 
that inspired me, and the thought of the water 
breaker beside the fore companion doubled my 
growing courage. 

Up I got, was welcomed almost instantly by an- 
other cloud of spra}^ but this time stuck to my 
purpose ; and set myself, with all my strength and 
caution, to paddle after the unsteered Hispaniola. 
Once I shipped a sea so heavy that I had to stop 
and bail, with my heart fluttering like a bird ; but 
gradually I got into the way of the thing, and 
guided my coracle among the waves, with only now 
and then a blow upon her bows and a dash of foam 
in my face. 

I was now gaining rapidly on the schooner. I 
^ould see the brass glisten on the tiller as it banged 
ibout ; and still no soul appeared upon her decks. 
I could not choose but suppose she was deserted. 
If not, the men were lying drunk below, where I 
might batten them down, perhaps, and do what I 
chose with the ship. 


196 


TREASURE ISLAND 


For some time she had been doing the worst 
thing possible for me — standing still. She headed 
nearly due south, yawing, of course, all the time. 
Each time she fell off her sails partly filled, and 
these brought her in a moment right to the wind 
again. I have said this was the worst thing possi- 
ble for me ; for helpless as she looked in this situa- 
tion, with the canvas cracking like cannon and the 
blocks trundling and banging on the deck, she still 
continued to run away from me, not only with the 
speed of the current, but by the whole amount of 
her leeway, which was naturally great. 

But now at last I had my chance. The breeze fell 
for some seconds very low, and the current gradu- 
ally turning her, the Hispaniola revolved slowly 
round her center, and at last presented me her stern, 
with the cabin window still gaping open, and the 
lamp over the table still burning on into the day. 
The mainsail hung drooped like a banner. She was 
stock-still, but for the current. 

For the last little while 1 had even lost ; but now, 
redoubling my efforts, I began once more to over- 
haul the chase. 

I was not a hundred yards from her when the 
wind came again in a clap ; she filled on the port 
tack and was off again, stooping and skimming like 
a swallow. 

My first impulse was one of despair, but my sec- 
ond was toward joy. Bound she came till she was 
broadside on to me — round still till she had covered 
a half, and then two-thirds, and then three-quarters 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


19 ? 


of the distance that separated us. I could see the 
waves boiling white under her forefoot. Immensely 
tall she looked to me from my low station in the 
coracle. 

And then, of a sudden, I began to comprehend. 
I had scarce time to think — scarce time to act and 
save myself. I was on the summit of one swell 
when the schooner came stooping over the next. 
The bowsprit was over my head. I sprang to my 
feet and leaped, stamping the coracle under water. 
With one hand I caught the jib-boom, while my foot 
was lodged between the stay and the brace ; and as 
I still clung there panting a dull blow told me that 
the schooner had charged down upon and struck the 
coracle, and that I was left without retreat oj? tb^ 
Hispaniola. 


m 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


CHAPTER XXT. 

I STEIKE THE JOLLY EOGEB. 

I HAD scarce gained a position on the bowsprit, 
when the flying jib flapped and filled upon the other 
tack, with a report like a gun. The schooner 
trembled to her keel under the reverse ; but next 
moment, the other sails still drawing, the jib flapped 
back again and hung idle. 

This had nearly tossed me off into the sea ; and 
now I lost no time, crawled back along the bowsprit, 
and tumbled head foremost on the deck. 

I was on the lee side of the forecastle, and the 
mainsail, which was still drawing, concealed from 
me a certain portion of the after-deck. Hot a soul 
was to be seen. The planks, which had not been 
swabbed since the mutiny, bore the print of many 
feet ; and an empty bottle, broken by the neck, 
tumbled to and fro like a live thing in the scuppers. 

Suddenly the Hispaniola came right into the wind. 
The jibs behind me cracked aloud ; the rudder slam- 
med to ; the whole ship gave a sickening heave and 
shudder, and at the same moment the main-boom 
swung inboard, the sheet groaning in the blocks, and 
showed me the lee after-deck. 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


199 


There were the two watchmen, sure enough : red- 
cap on his back, as stiff as a handspike, with his 
arms stretched out like those of a crucifix, and his 
teeth showing through his open lips ; Israel Hands 
propped against the bulwarks, his chin on his chest, 
his hands lying open before him on the deck, his face 
as white, under its tan, as a tallow candle. 

For awhile the ship kept bucking and sidling like 
a vicious horse, the sails filling, now on one tack, 
now on another, and the boom swinging to and fro 
till the mast groaned aloud under the strain. How 
and again, too, there would come a cloud of light 
sprays over the bulwark, and a heavy blow of the 
ship’s bows against the swell : so much heavier 
weather was made of it by this great rigged ship 
than by my home-made, lop-sided coracle, now gone 
to the bottom of the sea. 

At every jump of the schooner red-cap slipped to 
and fro ; but — what was ghastly to behold — neither 
his attitude nor his fixed teeth-disclosing grin was 
anyway disturbed by this rough usage. At every 
jump, too, Hands appeared still more to sink into 
himself and settle down upon the deck, his feet 
sliding ever the farther out, and the whole body 
canting toward the stern, so that his face became, 
little by little, hid from me ; and at last 1 could see 
nothing beyond his ear and the frayed ringlet of 
one whisker. 

At the same time, I observed, around both of 
them, splashes of dark blood upon the planks, and 
began to feel sure that they had killed each other 
in their drunken wrath 


200 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


While I was thus looking and wondering, in a 
calm moment, when the ship was still, Israel Hands 
turned partly round, and, with a low moan, writhed 
himself back to the position in which I had seen 
him first. The moan, which told of pain and deadly 
v/eakness, and the way in which his jaw hung open, 
went right to my heart. But when I remembered 
the talk I had overheard from the apple barrel, all 
pity left me. 

I walked aft until I reached the mainmast. 

Come aboard, Mr. Hands,’’ I said ironically. 

He rolled his eyes round heavily; but he was too 
far gone to express surprise. All he could do was 
to utter one word : Brandy.” 

It occurred to me there was no time to lose; and, 
dodging the boom as it once more lurched across the 
deck, I slipped aft, and down the companion stairs 
into the cabin. 

It was such a scene of confusion as you can hardly 
fancy. All the lockfast places had been broken 
open in quest of the chart. The floor was thick with 
mud, where ruffians had sat down to drink or con- 
sult after wading in the marshes round their camp. 
The bulkheads, all painted in clear white, and beaded 
round with gilt, bore a pattern of dirty hands. 
Dozens of empty bottles clinked together in corners 
to the rolling of the ship. One of the doctor’s med- 
ical books lay open on the table, half of the leaves 
gutted out, I suppose, for pipelights. In the midst 
of all this the lamp still cast a smoky glow, obscure 
and brown as umber. 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


201 


I went into the cellar ; all the barrels were gone, 
and of the bottles a most surprising number had 
been drunk out and thrown away. Certainly, since 
the mutiny began, not a man of them could ever 
have been sober. 

Foraging about I found a bottle with some brandy 
left, for Hands ; and for myself I routed our some 
biscuit, some pickled fruits, a great bunch of raisins, 
and a piece of cheese. With these I came on deck, 
put down my own stock behind the rudder head, 
and well out of the coxswain’s reach, went forward 
to the water breaker, and had a good, deep drink of 
water, and then, and not till then, gave Hands the 
brandy. 

He must have drunk a gill before he took the bot- 
tle from his mouth. 

“ Ay,” said he, “ by thunder, but I wanted some 
o’ that !” 

1 had sat down already in my own corner and 
begun to eat. 

“ Much hurt ?” I asked him. 

He grunted, or, rather, I might say, he barked. 

If that doctor was aboard,” he said, “ I’d be 
right enough in a couple of turns ; but I don’t have 
no manner of luck, you see, and that’s what’s the 
matter with me. As for that swab, he’s good and 
dead, he is,” he added, indicating the man with the 
red cap. “ He warn’t no seaman, anyhow. And 
where mought you have come from 

“ Well,” said I, ‘‘ I’ve come aboard to take posses 
sion of this ship, Mr. Hands; and you’ll please 
regard me as your captain until further notice.” 


202 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


He looked at me sourly enough, but said nothing. 
Some of the color had come back into his cheeks, 
though he still looked very sick, and still continued 
to slip out and settle down as the ship banged about. 

By the bye,” I continued, “ I can’t have these 
colors, Mr. Hands; and, by your leave. I’ll strike 
^em. Better none than these.” 

And, again dodging the boom, I ran to the color 
lines, handed down their cursed black flag, and 
chucked it overboard. 

‘‘ God save the king !” said I, waving my cap ; 
“ and there’s an end to Carptain Silver !” 

He watched me keenly and slyly, his chin all the 
while on his breast. 

“ 1 reckon,” he said at last — “ I reckon, Cap’n 
Hawkins, you’ll kind of want to get ashore, now. 
S’ pose we talks.” 

“Why, yes,” says I, “with all my heart, Mr. 
Hands. Say on.” And I went back to my meal 
with a good appetite. 

“ This man,” he began, nodding feebly at the 
corpse — “ O’Brien were his name — a rank Irelander 
. — this man and me got the canvas on her, meaning 
for to sail her back. Well, he^s dead now, he is — as 
dead as bilge ; and who’s to sail this ship, I don’t 
see. Without I gives you a hint, you ain’t that man, 
as far’s I can tell. How, look here, you gives me 
food and drink, and a old scarf or ankecher to tie 
my wound up, you do ; and I’ll tell you how to sail 
her ; and that’s about square all round, I take it.” 

“ rii tell you one thing,” says I : “ I’m not going 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


203 


back to Captain Kidd’s anchorage. I mean to get 
into Korth Inlet, and beach her quietlf there.” 

“ To be sure you did,” he cried. “ Why, I ain’t 
sich an infernal lubber, after all. I can see, can’t I ? 
I’ve tried my fling, I have, and I’ve lost, and it’s 
you has the wind of me. Korth Inlet ? Why, 1 
haven’t no ch’ice, not I ! I’d help you sail her up to 
Execution Dock, by thunder ! so I would.” 

Well, as it seemed to me, there was some sense in 
this. We struck our bargain on the spot. In three 
minutes I had the Hispaniola sailing easily before 
the wind along the coast of Treasure Island, with 
good hopes of turning the northern point ere noon^ 
and beating down again as farasKorth Inlet before 
high water, when we might beach her safely, and 
wait till the subsiding tide permitted us to land. 

Then I lashed the tiller and went below to my 
own chest, where I got a soft silk handkerchief of 
my mother’s. With this, and with my aid. Hands 
bound up the great bleeding stab he had received in 
the thigh, and after he had eaten a little and had a 
swallow or two more of the brand}^, he began to 
pick up visibly, sat straighter up, spoke louder and 
clearer, and looked in every way another man. 

The breeze served us admirably. We skimmed 
before it like a bird, the coast of the island flashing 
by, and the view changing every minute. Soon we 
were past the high lands and bowling beside low, 
sandy country, sparsely dotted with dwarf pines, 
and soon we were bej^ond that again, and had turned 
the corner of the rocky hill that ends the island on 
the north. 


204 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


I was greatly elated with my new command, and 
pleased with the bright, sunshiny weather and these 
different prospects of the coast. I had now plenty 
of water and good things to eat, and my conscience, 
which had smitten me hard for my desertion, was 
quieted by the great conquest I had made. I should, 
I think, have had nothing left me to desire but for 
the eyes of the coxswain as they followed me 
derisively about the deck, and the odd smile that 
appeared continually on his face. It was a smile 
that had in it something both of pain and weakness 
— a haggard, old man’s smile; but there was, 
besides that, a grain of derision, a shadow of treach- 
ery in his expression as he craftily watched, and 
watched, and watched me at my work. 


TREASUHE ISLAND, 


205 


CHAPTER XXYL 

ISRAEL HANDS. 

The wind, serving us to a desire, now hauled into 
the west. We could run so much the easier from 
the northeast corner of the island to the mouth of 
the North Inlet. Only, as we had no power to 
anchor, and dared not beach her till the tide bad 
flowed a good deal farther, time hung on our hands. 
The coxswain told me howto lay the ship to ; after 
a good many trials I succeeded, and we both sat in 
silence over another meal. 

“ Cap’n,” said he, at length, with that same un- 
comfortable smile, “ here’s my old shipmate, 
O’Brien ; s’pose you was to heave him overboard. 
I ain’t partic’lar as a rule, and I don’t take no blame 
for settling his hash ; but I don’t reckon him orna- 
mental, now, do you ?” 

“ I’m not strong enough, and I don’t like the job ; 
and there he lies, for me,” said I. 

“This here’s an unlucky ship — this Hispaniola, 
Jim,” he went on, blinking. “ There’s a power of 
men been killed in this Hispaniola— a sight o’ poor 
seamen dead and gone since you and me took ship 
to Bristol. I never seen sich dirty luck, not 1. 


206 


TREASURE ISLAND 


There was this here O’Brien, now — he’s dead, ain’t 
he ? Well, now. I’m no scholar, and you’re a lad as 
can read and figure ; and, to put it straight, do you 
take it as a dead man is dead for good, or do he 
come alive again ?” 

You can kill the body, Mr. Hands, but not the 
spirit; you must know that already,” I replied. 

O’Brien there is in another world, and maybe 
watching us.” 

“Ah!” says he. “Well, that’s unfort’nate — ap- 
pears as if killing parties was a waste of time. How- 
somever, sperrits don’t reckon for much, by what 
I’ve seen. I’ll chance it with, the sperrits, Jim. And 
now, you’ve spoke up free, and I’ll take it kind if 
you’d step down into that there cabin and get me 
a — well, a — shiver my timbers ! I can’t hit the 
name on ’t ; well, you get me a bottle of wine, Jim 
— this here brandy’s too strong for my head.” 

Now, the coxswain’s hesitation seemed to be un- 
natural ; and as for the notion of his preferring wine 
to brandy, I entirely disbelieved it. The whole 
story was a pretext. He wanted me to leave the 
deck — so much was plain ; but with what purpose I 
could in no way imagine. His eyes never met 
mine ; they kept wandering to and fro, up and 
down, now with a look to the sky, now with a flit- 
ting glance upon the dead O’Brien. All the time 
be kept smiling and putting his tongue out in the 
most guilty, embarrassed manner, so that a child 
could have told that he was bent on some deception. 
I was prompt with my answer, however, for I saw 


TEEASURE ISLAND. 


207 


where my advantage lay ; and that with a fellow so 
densely stupid I could easily conceal my suspicions 
to the end. 

“Some wine?” I said. “Far better. Will you 
have white or red ?” 

“ W ell, I reckon it’s about the blessed same to me, 
shipmate,” he replied ; “ so it’s strong and plenty of 
it, what’s the odds ?” 

All right,” I answered. “ I’ll bring you port, 
Mr. Hands. But I’ll have to dig for it.” 

With that I scuttled down the companion with all 
the noise I could, sHpped off my shoes, ran quietly 
along the sparred gallery, mounted the forecastle 
ladder and popped my head out of the fore com- 
panion. I knew he would not expect to see me 
there ; yet I took every precaution possible ; and 
certainly the worst of my suspicions proved too true. 

He had risen from his position to his hands and 
knees ; and though his leg obviously hurt him pretty 
sharply when he moved — for I could hear him stifle 
a groan — ^yet it was at a good, rattling rate that he 
trailed himself across the deck. In half a minute 
he had reached the port scuppers, and picked, out of 
a coil of rope, a long knife, or rather a short dirk, 
discolored to the hilt with blood. He looked upon 
it for a moment, thrusting forth his under jaw, tried 
the point upon his hand, and then, hastily conceal- 
ing it in the bosom of his jacket, trundled back again 
into his old place against the bulwark. 

This was all that I required to know. Israel 
could move about ; he was now armed ; and if he 


208 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


had been at so imuch trouble to get rid of me, it was 
plain that I was meant to be the victim. What he 
would do afterward — whether he would try to crawl 
right across the island from IS’orth Inlet to the 
camp among the swamps, or whether he would fire 
Xong Tom, trusting that his own comrades might 
come first to help him, was, of course, more than I 
could say. 

Yet 1 felt sure that I could trust him in one point, 
since in that our interests jumped together, and that 
was in the disposition of the schooner. We both 
desired to have her stranded safe enough, in a 
sheltered place, and so that, when the time came, 
she could be got off again with as little labor and 
danger as might be ; and until that was done I con- 
sidered that my life would certainly be spared. 

While I was thus turning the business over in 
my mind, I had not been idle with my body. I had 
stolen back to the cabin, slipped once more into my 
shoes, and laid my hand at random on a bottle of 
wine, and now, with this for an excuse, I made my 
reappearance on the deck. 

Hands lay as I had left him, aU fallen together in 
a bundle, and with his eyelids lowered, as though he 
were too weak to bear the light. He looked up, 
however, at m}^ coming, knocked the neck off the 
bottle, like a man who fiad done the same thing 
often, and took a good swig, with his favorite toast 
'i “ Here’s luck !” Then he lay quiet for a little, 
and then, pulling out a s^ck of tobacco, begged me 
to cut him a quid- 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


20 '^ 


^ Cut me a junk o’ that,” says he, “ for I haven’t 
no knife, and hardly strength enough, so be as I 
had. Ah, Jim, Jim, I reckon I’ve missed stays ! Cut 
me a quid, as ’ll likely be the last, lad ; for I’m for 
my long home, and no mistake.” 

“ Well,” said I, “ I’ll cut you some tobacco ; but 
if I was you and thought myself so badly, I would 
go to my prayers, like a Christian man.” 

“ Why ?” said he. “ IS’ow, you tell me why.” 

‘‘Why?” I cried. “You were asking me just 
now about the dead. You’ve broken your trust ; 
you’ve lived in sin and Lies and blood ; there’s a 
man you killed lying at your feet this moment ; and 
you ask me why ! For God’s mercy, Mr. Hands, 
that’s why.” 

I spoke with a little heat, thinking of the bloody 
dirk he had hidden in his pocket, and designed, in 
his ill thoughts, to end me with. He, for his part, 
took a great draught of the wine, and spoke with 
the most unusual solemnity. 

“ For thirty years,” he said, “ I’ve sailed the seas, 
and seen good and bad, better and worse, fair 
weather and foul, provisions running out, knives 
going, and what not. Well, now I tell you, I never 
seen good come o’ goodness yet. Him as strikes 
first is my fancy ; dead men don’t bite ; them’s my 
views — amen, so be it. And now, you look here,” 
he added, suddenly changing his tone, “ we’ve had 
about enough of this foolery. The tide’s made 
good enough by now. You just take my orders, Cap’n 
Hawkins, and we’ll sail slap in and be done with it’* 


210 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


All told, we had scarce two miles to run ; but the 
navigation was delicate, the entrance to this north- 
ern anchorage was not only narrow and shoal, but 
lay east and west, so that the schooner must be nicely 
handled to be got in. I think I was a good, prompt 
subaltern, and I am very sure that Hands was an 
excellent pilot ; for we went about and about, and 
dodged in, shaving the banks, with a certainty and 
a neatness that were a pleasure to behold. 

Scarcely had we passed the heads before the land 
closed around us. The shores of ^sorth Inlet were 
as thickly wooded as those of the southern anchor- 
age ; but the space was longer and narrower, and 
more like, what in truth it was, the estuary of a. 
river. Right before us, at the southern end, we saw 
the wreck of a ship in the last stages of dilapida- 
tion. It had been a great vessel of three masts, but 
had laid so long exposed to the injuries of the 
weather that it was hung about with great webs of 
dripping seaweed, and on the deck of it shore bushes 
had taken root, and now flourished thick with 
flowers. It was a sad sight, but it showed us that 
the anchorage was calm. 

How,’^ said Hands, look there ; there’s a pet 
bit for to beach a ship in. Fine flat sand, never a 
catspaw, trees all around of it, and flowers a-blow- 
ing like a garding on that old ship.” 

And once beached,” I inquired, “ how shall we 
get her off again ? ” 

Why, so,” he replied : you take a line ashore 
there on the other side at low water; take a turn 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


211 


about one o’ them big pines ; bring it back, take a 
turn round the capstan, and lie-to for the tide. 
Come high water, all hands take a pull upon the 
line, and off she comes as sweet as natur’. And now, 
boy, you stand by. We’re near the bit now, and 
she’s too much way on her. Starboard a little— so 
— steady — starboard — larboard a little — steady — 
steady !” 

So he issued his commands, which I breathlessly 
obeyed ; till, all of a sudden, he cried : “ Now, my 
hearty, luff !” And I put the helm hard up, and 
the Hispaniola swung round rapidly, and ran stem 
on for the low wooded shore. 

The excitement of these last maneuvers had some- 
what interfered with the watch I had kept hither- 
to, sharply enough, upon the coxswain. Even then 
I was still so much interested, waiting for the ship 
to touch, that I had quite forgot the peril that hung 
over my head, and stood craning over the starboard 
bulwarks and watching the ripples spreading wide 
before the bows. I might have fallen without a 
struggle for my life, had not a sudden disquietude 
seized upon me, and made me turn my head. Per- 
haps I had heard a creak, or seen his shadow mov- 
ing with the tail of my eye ; perhaps it was an in- 
stinct like a cat’s ; but, sure enough, when I looked 
round, there was Hands, already halfway toward 
me, with the dirk in his right hand. 

We must both have cried out aloud when our eyes 
met ; but while mine was the shrill cry of terror, 
his vvas a roar of fury like a charging bull’s. At 


2n 


TBBASURE ISLAND. 


the same instant he threw himself forward, and 1 
leaped sideways toward the bows. As I did so I let 
go of the tiller, which sprang sharp to leeward ; and 
I think this saved my life, for it struck Hands across 
the chest and stopped him, for the moment, dead. 

Before he could recover, I was safe out of the 
corner where he had me trapped, with all the deck 
to dodge about. Just forward of the mainmast 1 
stopped, drew a pistol from my pocket, took a cool 
aim, though he had already turned and was once 
more coming directly after me, and drew the trigger. 
The hammer fell, but there followed neither flash 
nor sound; the priming was useless with sea water. 
1 cursed myself for my neglect. Why had not I, 
long before, reprimed and reloaded my only weapons ? 
Then I should not have been as now, a mere fleeing 
sheep before this butcher. 

Wounded as he was, it was wonderful how fast 
he could move, his grizzled hair tumbling over his 
face, and his face itself as red as a red ensign with 
his haste and fury. I had no time to try my other 
pistol, nor, indeed, much inclination, for I was sure 
it would be useless. One thing I saw plainly: I 
must not simply retreat before him, or he would 
speedily hold me boxed into the bows, as a moment 
since he had so nearly boxed me in the stern. Once 
so caught, and nine or ten inches of the blood- 
stained dirk would be my last experience on this 
side of eternity. I placed my palms against the 
mainmast, which was of a goodish bigness, s^nd 
waited, every nerve upon the stretch. 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


21S 


Seeing that I meant to dodge, he also paused ; 
and a moment or two passed in feints on his part, 
and corresponding movements upon mine. It was 
such a game as I had often played at home about 
the rocks of Black Hill Cove ; but never before, you 
may be sure, with such a wildly beating heart as 
now. Still, as I say, it was a boy’s game, and I 
thought I could hold my own at it, against an 
elderly seaman with a wounded thigh. Indeed, my 
courage had begun to rise so high that I allowed 
myself a few darting thoughts on what would be 
the end of the affair ; and while I saw certainly that 
I could spin it out for long, I saw no hope of any 
ultimate escape. 

Well, while things stood thus, suddenly the His- 
paniola struck, staggered, ground for an instant in 
the sand, and then, swift as a blow, canted over to 
the port side, till the deck stood at an angle of forty- 
five degrees, and about a puncheon of water splashed 
into the scupper-holes, and lay in a pool between 
the deck and bulwark. 

We were both of us capsized in a second, and both 
of us rolled, almost together, into the scuppers ; the 
dead red-cap, with his arms still spread out, tum- 
bling stiffly after us. So near were we, indeed, that 
my head came against the coxswain’s foot with a 
crack that made my teeth rattle. Blow and all, I 
was the first afoot again ; for Hands had got in- 
volved with the dead body. The sudden canting of 
the ship had made the deck no place for running on ; 
1 had to find some new way of escape, and that 


214 


TREASURE ISLAJT2>. 


upon the instant, for my foe was almost touching 
me. Quick as thought I sprang into the mizzen 
shrouds, rattled up hand over hand, and did not 
draw a breath till I was seated on the crosstrees. 

I had been saved by being prompt ; the dirk had 
struck not half a foot below me, as I pursued my 
upward flight ; and there stood Israel Hands with 
his mouth open and his face upturned to mine, a 
perfect statue of surprise and disappointment. 

How that I had a moment to myself, I lost no 
time in changing the priming of my pistol, and then, 
having one ready for service, and to make assurance 
aoubly sure, I proceeded to draw the load of the 
other, and recharge it afresh from the beginning. 

My new employment struck Hands all of a heap; 
he began to see the dice going against him ; and 
after an obvious hesitation, he also hauled himself 
heavily into the shrouds, and, with the dirk in his 
teeth, began slowly and painfully to mount. It 
cost him no end of time and groans to haul his 
wounded leg behind him ; and I had quietly flnished 
my arrangements before he was much more than a 
third of the way up. Then, with a pistol in either 
hand, I addressed him. 

“ One more step, Mr. Hands,’* said I, “ and I’ll 
blow your brains out I Dead men don’t bite, you 
know,” I added, with a chuckle. 

He stopped instantly. I could see by the work- 
ing of his face that he was trying to think, and the 
process was so slow and laborious that, in my new- 
Wnd security, I laughed aloud. with a 


TREASUitB ISLAND. 


215 


swallow or two, he spoke, his face still wearing the 
same expression of extreme perplexity. In order 
to speak he had to take the dagger from his mouth, 
but, in all else, he remained unmoved. 

“ Jim,” says he, “ I reckon we’re fouled, yon 
and me, and we’ll have to sign articles. I’d have 
had you but for that there lurch : but I don’t have 
no luck, not I ; and I reckon I’ll have to strike, 
which comes hard, you see, for a master mariner to 
a ship’s younker like you, Jim.” 

I was drinking in his words and smiling away, as 
conceited as a cock upon a wall, when, all in a breath 
back went his right hand over his shoulder. Some- 
thing sang like an arrow through the air ; I felt a 
blow and then a sharp pang, and there I was pinned 
by the shoulder to the mast. In the horrid pain 
and surprise of the moment — I scarce can say it was 
by my own volition, and I am sure it was without 
a conscious aim — both my pistols went off, and both 
escaped out of my hands. They did not fall alone ; 
with a choked cry, the coxswain loosed his grasp 
upon the shroud^ 4nd plunge<l head first into the 
water. 


210 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


CHAPTEB XXYli 

“pieces op eight 

Owing to the cant of the vessel, the masts hung 
far out over the water, and from my perch on the 
crosstrees I had nothing below me but the surface 
of the bay. Hands, who was not so far up, was, in 
consequence, nearer to the ship, and fell between 
me and the bulwarks. He rose once to the surface 
in a lather of foam and blood, and then sank again 
for good. As the water settled, 1 could see him 
lying huddled together on the clean, bright sand in 
the shadow of the vessel’s sides. A lish or two 
whipped past his body. Sometimes, by the quiver- 
ing of the water, he appeared to move a little, as if 
he were trying to rise. But he was dead enough, 
for all that, being both shot and drowned, and was 
food for fish in the very place where he had designed 
my slaughter. 

I was no sooner certain o+ this than I began to 
feel sick, faint, and terrified The hot blood was 
running over my back and chest. The dirk, where 
it had pinned my shoulder to the mast, seemed to 
burn like a hot iron ; yet it was not so much these 
real sufferings that distressed me, for these, it seemed 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


21? 


to me, I could bear without a murmur ; it was the 
horror I had upon my mind of falling from the 
crosstrees into that still green water, beside the 
body of the coxswain. 

1 clung with both hands till my nails ached, and 
I shut my eyes as if to cover up the peril. Grad- 
ually my mind came back again, my pulses quieted 
down to a more natural time, and I was once more 
in possession of myself. 

It was iny first thought to pluck forth the dirk ; 
but either it stuck too hard or my nerve failed me ; 
and I desisted with a violent shudder. Oddly 
enough, that very shudder did the business. The 
knife, in fact, had come the nearest in the world to 
missing me altogether ; it held me by a mere pinch 
of skin, and this the shudder tore away. The blood 
ran down the faster, to be sure ; but I was my own 
master again, and only tacked to the mast by my 
coat and shirt. 

These last I broke through with a sudden jerk, 
and then regained the deck by the starboard shrouds. 
For nothing in the world would I have again ven- 
tured, shaken as I was, upon the overhanging port 
shrouds, from which Israel had so lately fallen. 

I went below, and did what I could for my 
wound; it pained me a good deal, and still bled 
freely ; but it was neither deep nor dangerous, nor 
did it greatly gall me when I used my arm. Then 
I looked around me, and as the ship was now, in a 
sense, my own, I began to think of clearing it from 
its last passenger — the dead man, O’Brien. 


318 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


He had pitched, as I have said, against the bul- 
warks, where he lay like some horrible, ungainly 
sort of puppet ; life-size, indeed, but how different 
from life’s color or life’s comeliness ! In that posi- 
tion I could easily have my way with him ; and as 
the habit of tragical adventures had worn off almost 
all my terror for the dead, I took him by the waist 
as if he had been a sack of bran, and, with one good 
heave, tumbled him overboard. He went in with a 
sounding plunge; the red cap came off, and re- 
mained floating on the furface ; and as soon as the 
splash subsided, I could see him and Israel lying 
side by side, both wavering with the tremulouN 
movement of the water. O’Brien, though still quite 
young man, was very bald. There he lay, with that 
bald head across the knees of the man who had 
killed him, and the quick fishes steering to and fro 
over both. 

I was now alone upon the ship ; the tide had just 
turned. The sun was within so few degrees of set- 
ting that already the shadow of the pines upon the 
western shore began to reach right across the an- 
chorage, and fall in patterns on the deck. The 
evening breeze had sprung up, and though it was 
well warded off by the hill with the two peaks upon 
the east, the cordage had begun to sing a little 
softly to itself and the idle sails to rattle to and fro. 

I began to see a danger to the ship. The jibs I 
speedily doused and brought tumbling to the deck ; 
but the mainsail was a harder matter. Of course, 
when the schooner canted over, the boom had swung 


TREASUME ISLAND. 


219 


outboard, and the cap of it and a foot or two of sail 
hung even under water. I thought this made it 
still more dangerous ; yet the strain was so heavy 
that I half feared to meddle. At last I got my 
knife and cut the halyards. The peak dropped in* 
stantly, a great belly of loose canvas floated broad 
upon the water ; and since, pull as 1 liked, I could not 
budge the doTvnhaul ; that was the extent of what I 
could accomplish. For the rest, the Hispaniola 
must trust to luck, like myself. 

By this time the whole anchorage had fallen into 
shadow — the last rays, I remember, falling through 
a glade of the wood, and shining bright as jewels on 
the flowery mantle of the wreck. It began to be 
chill ; the tide was rapidly fleeting seaward, the 
schooner settling more and more on her beam-ends. 

I scrambled forward and looked over. It seemed 
shallow enough, and holding the cut hawser in both 
hands for a last security, I let myself drop softly 
overboard. The water scarcely reached my waist; 
the sand was firm and covered with ripple marks, 
and I waded ashore in great spirits, leaving the 
Hispaniola on her side, with her mainsail trailing 
wide upon the surface of the bay. About the same 
time the sun went fairly down, and the breeze 
whistled low in the dusk among the tossing pines. 

At least, and at last, I was off the sea, nor had I 
returned thence empty handed. There lay the 
schooner, clear at last from buccaneers and ready 
for our own men to board and get to sea again. 1 
had nothing nearer my fancy than to get home to 


220 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


the stockade and boast of my achievements. Possh 
bl}' I might be blamed a bit for my truantry, but 
the recapture of the Hispaniola was a clenching 
answer, and I hoped that even Captain Smollett 
would confess I had not lost my time. 

So thinking, and in famous spirits, I began to set 
my face homeward for the blockhouse and my com- 
panions. I remembered that the most easterly of 
the rivers which drain into Captain Kidd’s anchor- 
age ran from the two-peaked hill upon my left ; and 
I bent my course in that direction that I might pass 
the stream while it was small. The wood was pretty 
open, and keeping along the lower spurs I had 
soon turned the corner of that hill, and not long 
after waded to the mid-calf across the water course. 

This brought me near to where I had encountered 
Ben Gunn, the maroon ; and I walked more circum- 
spectly, keeping an eye on every side. The dusk 
had come nigh hand completely, and, as I opened 
out the cleft between the two peaks, I became aware 
of a wavering glow against the sky, where, as I 
I judged, the man of the island was cooking his 
supper before a roaring fire. And yet I wondered, 
in my heart, that he should show himself so care- 
less. For if I could see this radiance, might it not 
reach the eyes of Silver himself where he camped 
upon the shore among the marshes ? 

Gradually the night fell blacker ; it was all I 
could do to guide myself even roughly toward my 
destination ; the double hill behind me and the Spy- 
glass on my right hand loomed faint and fainter ; the 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


221 


stars were few and pale ; and in the low ground 
where I wandered I kept tripping among bushes 
and rolling into sandy pits. 

Suddenly a kind of brightness fell about me. I 
looked up ; a pale glimmer of moonbeams had 
alighted on the summit of the Spyglass, and soon 
after I saw something broad and silvery moving low 
down behind the trees, and knew the moon had 
risen. 

With this to help me, I passed rapidly over what 
remained to me of my journey ; and, sometimes 
walking, sometimes running, impatiently drew near 
to the stockade. Yet, as I began to thread the 
grove that lies before it, I was not so thoughtless 
but that I slacked my pace and went a trifle warily. 
It would have been a poor end of my adventures to 
get shot down by my own party in mistake. 

The moon was climbing higher and higher ; its 
light began to fall here and there in masses through 
the more open districts of the wood ; and right in 
front of me a glow of a different color appeared 
among the trees. It was red and hot, and now and 
again it was a little darkened — as it were the 
embers of a bonflre smoldering. 

For the life of me I could not think what it 
might be. 

At last I came right down upon the borders of 
the clearing. The western end was already steeped 
in moonshine ; the rest, and the blockhouse itself, 
still lay in a black shadow, checkered with long, 
silvery streaks of light. On the other side of the 




TEEASURE ISLAND. 


house an immense fire had burned itself into clear 
embers and shed a steady, red reverberation, con- 
trasted strongly with the mellow paleness of the 
moon. There was not a soul stirring, nor a sound 
beside the noises of the breeze. 

I stopped, with much wonder in my heart, and 
perhaps a little terror also. It had not been our 
way to build great fires ; we were, indeed, by the 
captain’s orders, somewhat niggardly of firewood ; 
and I began to fear that something had gone wrong 
while I was absent. 

I stole round by the eastern end, keeping close in 
shadow, and at a convenient place, where the dark- 
ness was thickest, crossed the palisade. 

To make assurance surer, I got upon my hands and 
knees, and crawled, without a sound, toward the 
corner of the house. As 1 drew nearer my heart 
was suddenly and greatly lightened. It is not a 
pleasant noise in itself, and I have often complained 
of it at other times ; but just then it was like music 
to hear my friends snoring together so loud and 
peaceful in their sleep. The sea cry of the watch, 
that beautiful “All’s well,” never fell more reassur- 
ingly on my ear. 

In the meantime, there was no doubt of one thing ; 
they kept an infamous bad watch. If it had been 
Silver and his lads that were now creeping in on 
them, not a soul would have seen daybreak. That 
was what it was, thought I, to have the captain 
wounded ; and again I blamed myself sharply for 
leaving them in that danger with so few to mount 


TREASURE ISLANT). 


225 


By this time I had got to the door and stood up. 
All was dark within, so that I could distinguish 
nothing by the eye. As for sounds, there was the 
steady drone of the snorers, and a small occasional 
noise, a flickering or pecking that I could in no way 
account for. 

With my arms before me I walked steadily in. 
I should lie down in my own place (I thought, with 
a silent chuckle) and enjoy their faces when they 
found me in the morning. 

My foot struck something yielding — it was a 
sleeper’s leg ; and he turned and groaned, but with- 
out awaking. 

And then, all of a sudden, a shrill voice broke 
forth out of the darkness : 

“ Pieces of eight ! pieces of eight ! pieces of 
eight! pieces of eight! pieces of eight!” and so 
forth, without pause or change, like the clacking 
of a tiny mill 

Silver’s green parrot. Captain Flint 1 It was she 
whom I had heard pecking at a piece of bark; it was 
she, keeping better watch than any human being, 
who thus announced my arrival with her wearisome 
refrain. 

1 had no tim(3 left me to recover. At the sharp, 
clipping tone of the parrot, the sleepers awoke and 
sprang up ; and with a mighty oath the voice of 
Silver cried : 

“ Who goes 

I turned to run, struck violently against one per- 
son, recoiled, and ran fuK mto the arms of a 


m 


TRJSA8UBE ISLAITD 


second, who, for his part, closed upon and held mo 
tight. 

“Bring a torch, Dick,” said Silver, when my 
capture was thus assured. 

And one of the men left the log-house, and pres* 
ently returned with a lighted brand. 


1 


PART VI. 


CAPTAIN SILVER, 





€ 


mEASURE I8LANR 


227 


CHAPTER XXYIII. 

IN THE enemy’s CAMP. 

The red glare of the torch, lighting up the interior 
of the blockhouse, showed me the worst of my appro* 
hensions realized. The pirates were in possession 
of the house and stores : there was the cask of cognac, 
there were the pork and bread, as before ; and, what 
tenfold increased my horror, not a sign of any 
prisoner. I could only judge that all had perished, 
and my heart smote me sorely that I had not been 
there to perish with them. 

There were six of the buccaneers, all told ; not 
another man was left alive. Five of them were on 
their feet, flushed and swollen, suddenly called out 
of the first sleep of drunkenness. The sixth had only 
risen upon his elbow ; he was deadly pale, and the 
blood-stained bandage round his head told that he 
had recently been wounded, and still more recently 
dressed. I remembered the man who had been 
shot and had run back among the woods in the 
great attack, and doubted not that this was he. 

The parrot sat, preening her plumage, on Long 
John’s shoulder. He himself, I thought, looked 
t somewhat paler and more stern than I was used to. 


228 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


He still wore the fine broadcloth suit in which he 
had fulfilled his mission, but it was bitterly the 
worse for wear, daubed with clay and torn with the 
sharp briers of the wood. 

‘‘ So,” said he, “ here’s Jim Hawkins, shiver my 
timbers ! dropped in, like, eh ? Well, come, I take 
that friendly.” 

And thereupon he sat down across the brandy 
cask, and began to fill a pipe. 

“ Give me a loan of the link, Dick,” said he ; and 
then, when he had a good light, “ That’ll do, lad,’'' 
he added; “ stick the glim in the wood heap; and 
you, gentlemen, bring yourselves to ! — you needn’t 
stand up for Mr. Hawkins ; heHl excuse you, you 
may lay to that. And so, Jim ” — stopping the 
tobacco — “ here you were, and quite a pleasant sur- 
prise for poor old John. I see you were smart 
when first I set my eyes on you ; but this here gets 
away from me clean, it do.” 

To all this, as may be well supposed, I made no 
answer. They had set me with my back against 
the wall ; and I stood there looking Silver in the 
face, pluckily enough, I hope, to all outward appear- 
ance, but with black despair in my heart. 

Silver took a whiff or two of his pipe with great 
composure, and then ran on again. 

“Now, you see, Jim, so be as you a/re here,” says 
he, “ I’ll give you a piece of my mind. I’ve always 
liked you, I have, for a lad of spirit, and the picter 
of my own self when I was young and handsome. 
I always wanted you to jine and take your share, 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


229 


and die a gentleman, and now, my cock, you’ve got 
to. Cap’n Smollett’s a fine seaman, as I’ll own up 
to any day, but stiff on discipline. ‘ Dooty is 
dooty,’ says he, and right he is. Just you keep 
clear of the cap’n. The doctor himself is gone dead 
again you — ‘ ungrateful scamp ’ was what he said ; 
and the short and the long of the whole story is 
about here : you can’t go back to your own lot, for 
they won’t have you ; and, without you start a 
third ship’s company all by yourself, which might 
be lonely, you’ll have to jine with Cap’n Silver.” 

So far so good. My friends, then, were still alive, 
and though I partly believed the truth of Silver’s 
statement, that the cabin party were incensed at me 
for my desertion, I was more relieved than dis- 
tressed by what I heard. 

“I don’t say nothing as to your being in our 
hands,” continued Silver, “ though there you are, 
and you may lay to it. I’m all for argyment ; I 
never seen good come out o’ threatening. If you 
like the service, well, you’ll jine ; and if you don’t, 
Jim, why, you’re free to answer no — free and wel- 
come, shipmate ; and if fairer can be said by mortal 
seaman, shiver my sides !” 

“ Am I to answer, then ?” I asked, with a very 
tremulous voice. Through all this sneering talk I 
was made to feel the threat of death that overhung 
me, and my cheeks burned and my heart beat pain- 
fully in my breast. 

“ Lad,” said Silver, “ no one’s a-pressing of you. 
Take your bearings. None of us won’t hurry you. 


230 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


mate; time goes so pleasant in your company, you 
see.” 

Well,” says I, growing a bit bolder, if I’m to 
choose, I declare I have a right to know what’s 
what, and why you’re here, and where my friends 
are.” 

Wot’s wot ? ” repeated one of the buccaneers, in 
a deep growl. Ah, he’d be a lucky one as knowed 
that ! ” 

You’ll, perhaps, batten down your hatches till 
you’re spoke to, my friend,” cried Silver truculently 
to this speaker. And then, in his first gracious 
tones, he replied to me : Y^esterday morning, Mr. 
Hawkins,” said he, in the dog-watch, down came 
Dr. Livesey with a flag of truce. Says he, ^ Cap’n 
Silver, you’re sold out. Ship’s gone.’ Well, maybe 
we’d been taking a glass, and a song to help it round. 
I won’t say no. Leastways, none of us had looked 
out. We looked out, and, by thunder! the old ship 
was gone. I never seen a pack o’ fools look fishier ; 
and you may lay to that, if I tells you that looked 
the fishiest. ^ Well,’ says the doctor, ^ let’s bargain.’ 
We bargained, him and I, and here we are: stores, 
brandy, blockhouse, the firewood you was thought- 
ful enough to cut and, in a manner of speaking, the 
whole blessed boat, from crosstrees to kelson. As 
for them, they’ve tramped; I don’t know where’s 
they are.” 

He drew again quietly at his pipe. 

And lest you should take it into that head of 
yours,” he went on, that you was included in the 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


231 


treaty, here’s the last word that was said : ‘ How 
many are you,’ says I, ‘ to leave ?’ ‘ Four,’ says he 

— ‘ four, and one of us wounded. As for that boy, 
I don’t know where he is, confound him,’ says he, 
‘ nor I don’t much care. We’re about sick of him.’ 
These was his words.” 

“ Is that all ?” I asked. 

“Well, it’s all that you’re to hear, my son,’' 
returned Silver. 

“ And now I am to choose ?” 

“ And now you are to choose, and you may lay 
to that,” said Silver. 

“ Well,” said I, “ I am not such a fool but I know 
prett}^ well what I have to look for. Let the worst 
come to the worst, it’s little I care. I’ve seen too 
many die since I fell in with you. But there’s a 
thing or two I have to tell you,” I said, and by this 
time I was quite excited ; “ and the first is this : 
here you are, in a bad way : ship lost, treasure lost, 
men lost ; your whole business gone to wreck ; and 
if you want to know who did it — it was I ! I was 
in the apple barrel the night we sighted land, and I 
heard you, John, and you, Johnson, and Hands, who 
is now at the bottom of the sea, and told every 
word you said before the hour was out. And as for 
the schooner, it was I who cut her cable, and it was 
I that killed the men you had aboard of her, and it 
was I who brought her where you’ll never see her 
more, not one of you. The laugh’s on my side ; I’ve 
had the top of this business from the first ; I no 
more fear you than I fear a fly. Kill me, if you 


232 


TUEASURE ISLAND. 


please, or spare me. But one thing I’ll say, and no 
more : if you spare me, bygones are bygones, and 
when you fellows are in court for piracy. I’ll save 
you all I can. It is for you to choose. Kill another 
and do yourselves no good, or spare me and keep a 
witness to save you from the gallows.” 

I stopped, for, I tell you, I was out of breath, and, 
to my wonder, not a man of them moved, but all 
sat staring at me like as many sheep. And while 
they were still staring, I broke out again : 

“ And now, Mr. Silver,” I said, “ I believe you’re 
the best man here, and if things go to the worst. I’ll 
take it kind of you to let the doctor know the way 
I took it.” 

“ I’ll bear it in mind,” said Silver, with an accent 
so curious that I could not, for the life of me, decide 
whether he were laughing at my request, or had 
been favorably affected by my courage. 

“ I’ll put one to that,” cried the old mahogany* 
faced seaman — Morgan by name — whom I had seen 
in Long John’s public house upon the quays of 
Bristol. “ It was him that knowed Black Dog.” 

“ Well, and see here,” added the sea cook. “ I’ll 
put another again to that, by thunder ! for it was 
this same boy that faked the chart from Billy 
Bones. First and last, we’ve split upon Jim 
Hawkins !” 

“ Then here goes !” said Morgan, with an oath. 

And he sprang up, drawing his knife as if he had 
been twenty. 

“ Avast, there !” cried Silver. “ Who are you, 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


233 


Tom Morgan ? Maybe you thought you was cap’n 
here, perhaps. By the powers, but I’ll teach you 
better ! Cross me, and you’ll go where many a good 
man’s gone before you, first and last, these thirty 
year back — some to the yard-arm, shiver my tin>- 
bers ! and some by the board, and all to feed the 
fisbes. There’s never a man looked me between the 
eyes and seen a good day a’terwards, Tom Morgan, 
you may lay to that.” 

Morgan paused ; but a hoarse murmur rose from 
the others. 

“ Tom’s right,” said one. 

“ I stood hazing long enough from one,” added 
another. “ I’ll be hanged if I’ll be hazed by you, 
John Silver.” 

“ Did any of you gentlemen want to have it out 
with me .^” roared Silver, bending far forward from 
his position on the keg, with his pipe still glowing 
in his right hand. ‘‘ Put a name on what you’re at ; 
you ain’t dumb, I reckon. Him that wants shall 
get it. Have I lived this many years, and a son of 
a rum puncheon cock his hat athwart my hawse at 
the latter end of it? You know the way; you’re 
all gentlemen o’ fortune, by your account. Well, 
I’m ready. Take a cutlass, him that dares, and I’ll 
see the color of his inside, crutch and all, before that 
pipe’s empty.” 

Hot a man stirred ; not a man answered. 

“ That’s your sort, is it ?” he added, returning his 
pipe to his mouth. “Well, you’re a gay lot to look 
at, anyway. Hot much worth to fight, you ain’t 


234 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


P’r’aps you can understand King George’s English. 
I’m cap’n here by ’lection. I’m cap’n here because 
I’m the best man by a long sea-mile. You won’t 
fight, as gentlemen o’ fortune should ; then, by thun- 
der, you’ll obey, and you may lay to it ! I like that 
boy, now ; I never seen a better boy than that. 
He’s more a man than any pair of rats of you in 
this here house, and what I say is this : let me see 
him that’ll lay a hand on him — that’s what I say, 
and you may lay to it.” 

There was a long pause after this. I stood straight 
up against the wall, my heart still going like a 
sledge-hammer, but with a ray of hope now shining 
in my bosom. Silver leaned back against the wail, 
his arms crossed, his pipe in the corner of his mouth, 
as calm as though he had been in church ; yet his 
eye kept wandering furtively, and he kept the tail 
of it on his unruly followers. They, on their part, 
drew gradually together toward the far end of the 
blocldiouse, and the low hiss of their whispering 
sounded in my ear continuously, like a stream. 
One after another they would look up, and the red 
[light of the torch would fall for a second on their 
nervous faces ; but it was not toward me, it was 
toward Silver that they turned their eyes. 

“ You seem to have a lot to say,” remarked Silver, 
spitting far into the air. “ Pipe up and let me hear 
it, or lay to.” 

“ Ax your pardon, sir,” returned one of the men, 
“ you’re pretty free with some of the rules ; maybe 
you’ll kindly keep an eye upon the rest. This crew’s 


TBEASdRE ISLAND. 


235 


dissatisfied; this crev7 don’t vally bullying a marlin- 
spike ; this erew has its rights like other crews, I’ll 
make so free as that ; and by your own rules, I take 
it we can talk together. I ax your pardon, sir, ac- 
knowledging you for to be capting at this present ; 
but 1 claim my right, and steps outside for a 
council.” 

And with an elaborate sea salute, this fellow, a 
long, ill-looking, yeUow-eyed man of five and thirty, 
stepped coolly toward the door and disappeared out 
of the house. One after another the rest followed 
his example ; each making a salute a-s he passed ; 
each adding some apology. “ According to rules,” 
said one. “Fo’c’s’le council,” said Morgan. And 
so, with one remark or another, all marched out, and 
left Silver and me alone with the torch. 

The sea cook instantly removed his pipe. 

“ ISTow, look you here, Jim Hawkins,” he said, in 
a steady whisper, that was no more than audible, 
“you’re within half a plank of death, and, what’s a 
long sight worse, of torture. They’re going to 
throw me off. But, you mark, I stand by you 
through thick and thin. I didn’t mean to ; no, not 
till you spoke up. I was about desperate to lose that 
much blunt, and be hanged into the bargain. But I 
see you was the right sort. Isays to myself: You 
stand by Hawkins, John, and Hawkins ’ll stand by 
you. You’re his last card, and, by the living thunder, 
John, he’s yours ! Back to back, says I. You save 
your witness, and he’ll save your neck !” 

I began dimly to understand. 


236 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


‘‘ You mean all’s lost ?” I asked. 

Ay, by gum, I do !” he answered. “ Ship gone, 
neck gone — that’s the size of it. Once I looked into 
that bay, Jim Hawkins, and seen no schooner — well, 
I’m tough, but I gave out. As for that lot and their 
council, mark me, they’re outright fools and cowards. 
I’ll save your life — if so be as I can — from them. 
But, see here, Jim — tit for tat — you save Long John 
from swinging.” 

I was bewildered ; it seemed a thing so hopeless 
he was asking — he, the old buccaneer, the ringleader 
throughout. 

“ What I can do, that I’ll do,” I said. 

“ It’s a bargain !” cried Long John. “ You speak 
up plucky, and, by thunder ! I’ve a chance.” 

He hobbled to the torch, where it stood propped 
among the firewood, and took a fresh light to his 
pipe. 

“ Understand me, Jim,” he said, returning. “ I’ve 
a head on my shoulders, I have. I’m on squire’s 
side now. I know you’ve got that ship safe some- 
wheres. How you done it, I don’t know, but safe it 
is. I guess Hands and O’Brien turned soft. I 
never much believed in neither of them. How you 
mark me. I ask no questions, nor I won’t let 
others. I know when a game’s up, I do ; and I 
know a lad that’s staunch. Ah, you that’s young — 
you and me might have done a power of good to- 
gether I” 

He drew some cognac from the cask into a tii 
canikin. 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


237 


Will you taste, messmate he asked ; and when 
I had refused : ‘‘ Well, I’ll take a drain myself, Jim,” 
jsaid he. “ I need a caulker, for there’s trouble on 
hand. And, talking o’ trouble, why did that doctor 
give me the chart, Jim ?” 

My face expressed a wonder so unaffected that he 
saw the needlesiness of further questions. 

“ Ah, well, he did, though,” said he. “ And there’s 
something under that, no doubt — something, surely, 
under that, Jim — bad or good.” 

And he took another swallow of the brand}’’, shak- 
ing his great fair head like a man who looks forward 
to the worst. 


5 


238 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE BLACK SPOT AGAIN. 

The council of the buccaneers had lasted some 
time, when one of them re-entered the house, and 
with a repetition of the same salute, which had in 
my eyes an ironical air, begged for a moment’s loan 
of the torch. Silver briefly agreed ; and this emis- 
sary retired again, leaving us together in the dark. 

“ There’s a breeze coming, Jim,” said Silver, who 
had, by this time, adopted quite a friendly and 
familiar tone. 

I turned to the loophole nearest me and looked 
out. The embers of the great fire had so far burned 
themselves out, and now glowed so low and duskily 
that I understood why these conspirators desired a 
torch. About halfway down the slope to the stock- 
ade, they were collected in a group ; one held the 
light ; another was on his knees in their midst, and 
I saw the blade of an open knife shine in his hand 
with varying colors, in the moon and torchlight. 
The rest were all somewhat stooping, as though 
watching the maneuvers of this last. I could just 
make out that he had a book as well as a knife in 
his hand ; and was still wondering how anything so 


2REA8URE ISLAND, 


239 


incongruous had come in their posession, when the 
itneeling figure rose once more to his feet, and the 
whole party began to move together toward the 
house. 

“ Here they come,” said I ; and I returned to my 
former position, for it seemed beneath my dignity 
that they should find me watching them. 

“Well, let ’em come, lad — let ’em come,” said 
Silver cheerily. “ I’ve still a shot in my locker.” 

The door opened, and the five men, standing 
huddled together just inside, pushed one of their 
number forward. In any other circumstances it 
would have been comical to see his slow advance, 
hesitating as he set down each foot, but holding his 
closed right hand in front of him. 

“ Step up, lad,” cried Silver. “ I won’t eat you. 
Hand it over, lubber. I know the rules, I do ; I 
won’t hurt a depytation.” 

Thus encouraged, the buccaneer stepped forth 
more briskly, and having passed something to Silver, 
from hand to hand, slipped yet more smartly back 
again to his companions. 

The sea cook looked at what had been given him. 

“ The black spot ! I thought so,” he observed. 
“ Where might you have got the paper ? Why, 
hillo ! look here, now : this ain’t lucky ! You’ve 
gone and cut this out of a Bible. What fool’s cut a 
Bible?” 

“ Ah, there !” said Morgan — “ there ! Wot did I 
say ? Ho good’ll come o’ that, I said.” 

“Well, you’ve about fixed it now, among you,” 


240 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


continued Silver. “ You'll all swing now, I reckon. 
What soft-headed lubber had a Bible?” 

“ It was Dick,” said one. 

“ Dick, was it ? Then Dick can get to prayers,” 
said Silver. “ He’s seen his slice of luck, has Dick, 
and you may lay to that.” 

But here the long man with the yellow eyes 
struck in. 

“ Belay that talk, John Silver,” he said. “This 
crew has tipped you the black spot in full council, as 
in dooty bound ; just you turn it over, as in dooty 
bound, and see what’s wrote there. Then you can 
talk.” 

“ Thanky, George,” replied the sea cook. “ You 
always was brisk for business, and has the rules by 
heart, George, as I’m pleased to see. Well, what is 
it, anyway? Ah! ‘Depposed’ — that’s it, is it? 
Very pretty wrote, to be sure; like print, I swear. 
Your hand o’ write, George ? Why, you was gettin’ 
quite a leadin’ man in this here crew. You’ll be 
cap’n next, I shouldn’t wonder. Just oblige me 
with that torch again, will you? this pipe don’t 
draw.” 

“ Come, now,” said George, “ you don’t fool this 
crew no more. You’re a funny man, by your account; 
but you’re over now, and you’ll maybe step down 
off that barrel, and help vote.” 

“ I thought you said you knowed the rules,” re- 
turned Silver contemptuously. “ Leastways, if you 
don’t, I do ; and I wait here — and I’m still your 
cap’n, mind — till you outs with your grievances, and 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


341 


I reply ; in the meantime, your black spot ain’t 
worth a biscuit. After that, we’ll see.” 

“Oh,” replied George, “you don’t be under no 
kind of apprehension ; we* re all square, we are. 
First, you’ve made a hash of this cruise — you’ll be 
a bold man to say no to that. Second, you let the 
enemy out o’ this here trap for nothing. Why did 
they want out ? I dunno ; but it’s pretty plain they 
wanted it. Third, you wouldn’t let us go at them 
upon the march. Oh, we see through you, John 
Silver ; you want to play booty, that’s what’s wrong 
with you. And then, fourth, there’s this here boy.” 

“ Is that all ?” asked Silver quietly. 

“Enough, too,” retorted George. “We’ll all 
swing and sun-dry for your bungling.” 

“Well, now, look here. I’ll answer these four 
p’ints ; one after another I’ll answer ’em. I made a 
hash o’ this cruise, did I ? Well, now. you all know 
w^hat I wanted ; and you all know, it that had been 
done, that we’d a’ been aboard the Hispanicia tnis 
night as ever was, every man of us alive, and lit, 
and full of good plum-duff, and the treasure in the 
hold of her, by thunder! Well, who crossed me? 
Who forced my hand, as was the lawful cap’n ? Who 
tipped me the black spot the day we landed, and 
began this dance ? Ah, it’s a fine dance — I’m with 
you there — and looks mighty like a hornpipe in a 
rope’s end at Execution Dock by London town, it 
does. But who done it ? Why, it was Anderson, 
and Hands, and you, George Merry ! And you’re 
the last above board of that same meddling crew ; 


242 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


and you have the Davy Jones’ insolence to up and 
stand for cap’n over me — you, that sank the lot of 
us ! By the powers ! but this tops the stiffest yarn 
to nothing.” 

Silver paused, and I could see by the faces of 
George and his late comrades that these words had 
not been said in vain. 

“ That’s for number one,” cried the accused, 
wiping the sweat from his brow, for he had been 
talking with a vehemence that shook the house. 
“ Why, I give you my word, I’m sick to speak to 
you. You’ve neither sense nor memory, and I 
leave it to fajicy where your mothers was that let 
you come to sea. Sea I Gentlemen o’ fortune ! I 
reckon tailors is your trade.” 

“ Go on, J ohn,” said Morgan. “ Speak up to the 
others.” 

“Ah, the others!” returned John. “They’re a 
nice lot, ain’t they ? You say this cruise is bungled. 
Ah ! by gum, if you could understand how bad it’s 
bungled, you would see ! We’re that near the gibbet 
that my neck’s stiff with thinking on it. You’ve 
seen ’em, maybe, hanged in chains, birds about ’em, 
seamen p’inting ’em out as they go down with the 
tide. ‘ Who’s that V says one. ‘ That ! Why, that’s 
John Silver. I knowed him well,’ says another. 
And you can hear the chains a-jangle as you go 
about and reach for the other buoy. How, that’s 
about where we ai'e, every mother’s son of us, thanks 
to him, and Hands, and Anderson, and other ruina- 
tion fools of you. And if you want to know about 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


243 


number four, and that boy, why, shiver my timbers ! 
isn’t he a hostage ? Are we a-going to waste a hos- 
tage? No, not us; he might be our last chance, 
and I shouldn’t wonder. Kill that boy ? not me, 
mates! And number three? Ah, well, there’s a 
deal to say to number three. Maybe you don’t count 
it nothing to have a real college doctor come to see 
you every day — ^you, John, with your head broke — 
or you, George Merry, that had the ague shakes 
upon you not six hours agone, and has your eyes the 
color of lemon peel to this same moment on the 
clock ? And maybe, perhaps, you didn’t know there 
was a consort coming, either ? But there is ; and 
not so long till then ; and we’ll see who’ll be glad to 
have a hostage when it comes to that. And as for 
number two, and why I made a bargain — well, you 
came crawling on your knees to me to make it — on 
your knees you came, you was that downhearted — 
and you’d have starved, too, if I hadn’t — but that’s 
a trifle I you look there — that’s why !” 

And he cast down upon the floor a paper that I 
instantly recognized — none other than the chart on 
yellow paper, with the three red crosses, that I had 
found in the oilcloth at the bottom of the captain’s 
chest. Why the doctor had given it to him was 
more than I could fancy. 

But if it were inexplicable to me, the appearance 
of the chart was incredible to the surviving muti- 
neers. They leaped upon it like cats upon a mouse. 
It went from hand to hand, one tearing it from 
another ; and by the oaths and the cries and the 


244 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


childish laughter with which they accompanied their 
examination, you would have thought, not only they 
were lingering the very gold, but were at sea with 
it, besides, in safety. 

“Yes,” said one, “ that’s Flint, sure enough. J. 
F., and a score below, with a clove hitch to it ; so he 
done ever.” 

“ Mighty pretty,” said George. “ But how are we 
to get away with it, and us no ship ?” 

Silver suddenly sprang up, and supporting himself 
with a hand against the wall : “ Now I give you 
warning, George,” he cried. “ One more word of 
your sauce, and I’ll call you down and fight you. 
How ? Why, how do I know ? You had ought to 
tell me that — you and the rest, that lost me my 
schooner, with 3^our interference, burn you ! But 
not you, you can’t ; you hain’t got the invention of 
a cockroach. But civil you can speak, and shall, 
George Merry, you may lay to that.” 

“ That’s fair enow,” said the old man Morgan. 

“ Fair ! I reckon so,” said the sea cook. “ You 
lost the ship ; I found the treasure. Who’s the bet- 
ter man at that ? And now I resign, by thunder ! 
Elect whom you please to be your cap’n now ; I’m 
done with it.” 

“ Silver !” the}’’ cried. “ Barbecue forever ! Bar* 
becue for cap’n !” 

“ So that’s the toon, is it ?” cried the cook. 
“ George, I reckon you’ll have to wait another turn, 
friend ; and lucky for you as I’m not a revengeful 
man. But that was never my way. And now, 


TREASURE ISLAI^D. 


245 


shipmates, this black spot ? ’Tain’t mach good novv, 
is it ? Dick’s crossed his luck and spoiled his Bible^ 
and that’s about all.” 

“ It’ll do to kiss the book on still, won’t it ?” 
growled Dick, who was evidentlj" uneasy at the 
curse he had brought upon himself. 

“ A Bible with a bit cut out !” returned Silver 
derisively. “Hot it. It don’t bind no more’n a 
ballad-book.” 

“ Don’t it, though ?” cried Dick, with a sort of 
joy. “Weil, I reckon that’s worth having, too.” 

“ Here, Jim — here’s a cur’osity for you,” said 
Silver ; and he tossed me the paper. 

It was a round about the size of a crown piece. 
One side was blank, for it had been the last leaf ; 
the other contained a verse or two of Kevelation — 
these words among the rest, which struck sharply 
home upon my mind : “ Without are dogs and mur- 
derers.” The printed side had been blackened with 
wood ash, which already began to come off and soil 
my fingers ; on the blank side had been written 
with the sam.e material the one word “ Depposed.” 
I have that curiosity beside me at this moment ; 
but not a trace of writing now remains beyond a 
single scratch, such as a man might make with his 
thumb-nail. 

That was the end of the night’s business. Soon 
after, with a drink all round, we lay down to sleep, 
and the outside of Silver’s vengeance was to put 
George Merry up for sentinel, and threaten him 
with death if he should prove unfaithful. 


246 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


It was long ere I could close an eye, and 
Heaven knows I had matter enough for thought in 
the man whom I had slain that afternoon, in my 
own most perilous position, and, above all, in the 
remarkable game that I saw Silver now engaged 
upon — keeping the mutineers together with one 
hand, and grasping, with the other, after every 
means, possible and impossible, to make his peace 
and save his miserable life. He himself slept peace- 
fully, and snored aloud ; yet my heart was sore for 
him, wicked as he was, to think on the dark perils 
that environed, and the shameful gibbet that 
awaited him. 


TMEASURE ISLAND. 


247 


CHAPTER XXX 

ON PAROLE. 

I WAS wakened — indeed, we were all wakened, for 
i could see even the sentinel shake himself together 
from where he had fallen against the door-post — by 
a clear, hearty voice hailing us from the margin of 
the wood : 

“ Blockhouse, ahoy !” it cried. “ Here’s the 
doctor.” 

And the doctor it was. Although I was glad to 
hear the sound, yet my gladness was not without 
admixture. I remembered with confusion my insub- 
ordinate and stealthy conduct; and when I saw 
where it had brought me — among what companions 
and surrounded by what dangers — I felt ashamed to 
look him in the face. 

He must have risen in the dark, for the day had 
hardly come ; and when I ran to a loophole and 
looked out, 1 saw him standing, like Silver once be- 
fore, up to the mid-leg in creeping vapor. 

“ You, doctor ! Top o’ the morning to you, sir 
cried Silver, broad awake and beaming with good 
nature in a moment. “Bright and early, to be 
sure ; and it’s the early bird, as the saying goes, 


248 


treasuhe islajstd. 


that gets the rations. George, shake up your tim* 
bers, son, and help Dr. Livesey over the ship’s side. 
All a-doin’ well, your patients was — all well and 
merry.” 

So he pattered on, standing on the hill-top, with 
his crutch under his elbow, and one hand upon the 
side of the log-house — quite the old John in voice, 
manner, and expression. 

“ We’ve quite a surprise for you, too, sir,” he con 
tinued. “We’ve a little stranger here — he! he! A 
noo boarder and lodger, sir, and looking fit and taut 
as a fiddle ; slep’ like a supercargo, he did, right 
alongside of John — stem to stem we was, all night.” 

Dr. Livesey was by this time across the stockade 
and pretty near the cook; and I ceuld hear the 
alteration in his voice as he said : 

“ Not Jim ?” 

“ The very same Jim as ever was,” says Silver. 

The doctor stopped outright, although he did not 
speak, and it was some seconds before he seemed 
able to move on. 

“Well, well,” he said at last, “duty first and 
pleasure afterward, as you might have said yourself, 
Silver. Let us overhaul these patients of yours.” 

A moment afterward he had entered the block- 
house, and, with one grim nod to me, proceeded 
with his work among the sick. He seemed under 
no apprehension, though he must have known that 
his life, among these treacherous demons, depended 
on a hair ; and he rattled on to his patients as if he 
were paying an ordinary professional visit in a quiet 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


249 


English family. His manner, I suppose, reacted on 
the men ; for they behaved to him as if nothing had 
occurred — as if he were still ship’s doctor, and they 
still faithful hands before the mast. 

You’re doing well, my friend,” he said to the 
fellow with the bandaged head, “ and if ever any 
person had a close shave, it was you ; your head 
must be as hard as iron. Well, George, ho\Y goes 
it? You’re a pretty color, certainly ; why, your liver, 
man, is upside down. Did you take that medicine ? 
Did he take that medicine, men ?” 

“Ay, ay, sir, he took it, sure enough,” returned 
Morgan. 

“ Because, you see, since I am mutineers’ doctor, 
or prison doctor, as I prefer to call it,” says Dr. 
Livesey, in his pleasantest way, “ I make it a point 
of honor not to lose a man for King George (God 
bless him !) and the gallows.” 

The rogues looked at each other, but swallowed 
the home-thrust in silence. 

“ Dick don t feel well, sir,” said one. 

“ Don’t he ?” replied the doctor. “ Well, step up 
here, Dick, and let me see your tongue. Ko, I should 
be surprised if he did ! the man’s tongue is fit to 
frighten the French. Another fever.” 

“ Ah, there,” said Morgan, “ that corned of sp’iling 
Bibles.” 

“ That corned — as you call it — of being arrant 
asses,” retorted the doctor, “ and not having sense 
enough to know honest air from poison, and the 
dry lana xrom a vue, pestiferous slough. I think it 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


25 (» 

most probable — though, of course, it’s only an opinion 
— that you’ll all have the deuce to pay before 3^00 
get that malaria out of your systems. Camp in a 
bog, would you? Silver, I’m surprised at you. 
You’re less of a fool than many, take you all round ; 
but you don’t appear to me to have the rudiments of 
a notion of the rules of health. 

“Well,” he added, after he had dosed them round, 
and they had taken his prescriptions with really 
laughable humility, more like charity school-children 
than blood-guilty mutineers and pirates — “well, 
that’s done for to-day. And now I should wish to 
have a talk with that boy, please.” 

And he nodded his head in my direction care- 
lessly. 

George Merry was at the door, spitting and 
spluttering over some bad-tasted medicine ; but at 
the first word of the doctor’s proposal he swung 
round with a deep flush, and cried “iN'o!” and 
swore. 

Silver struck the barrel with his opon hand. 

/ “ Si-lence !” he roared, and looked about him posi- 
tively like a lion. “ Doctor,” he went on, in his 
usual tones, “ I was a-thinking of that, knowing as 
how you had a fancy for the boy. We’re all humbly 
grateful for your kindness, and, as you see, puts faith 
in you, and takes the drugs down like that much 
grog. And I take it I’ve found a way as ’ll suit all. 
Hawkins, will 3"ou give me your word of honor as a 
young gentleman — for a young gentleman you are, 
although poor born — ^your word of honor not to slip 
your cable ?” 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


251 


I readily gave the pledge required. 

“Then, doctor,” said Silver, “you just step out- 
side o’ that stockade, and once you’re there. I’ll 
bring the boy down on the inside, and I reckon 
you can yarn through the spars. Good-day to you^ 
sir, and all our dooties to the squire and Cap’n 
Smollett.” 

The explosion of disapproval, which nothing but 
Silver’s black looks had restrained, broke out imme- 
diately the doctor had left the house. Silver was 
roundly accused of playing double — of trying to 
make a separate peace for himself — of sacrificing 
the interests of his accomplices and victims ; and, in 
one word, of the identical, exact thing that he was 
doing. It seemed to me so obvious, in this case, 
that I could not imagine how he was to turn their 
anger. But he was twice the man the rest were ; 
and his last night’s victory had given him a huge 
preponderance on their minds. He called them all 
the fools and dolts you can imagine, said it was 
Uecessary I should talk to the doctor, fluttered the 
chart in their faces, asked them if they could afford 
to break the treaty the very day they were bound 
a-treasure hunting. 

“ Ho, by thunder !” he cried, “ it’s us must break 
the treaty when the time comes ; and till then I’ll 
gammon that doctor, if I have to ile his boots with 
brandy.” 

And then he bade them get the fire lit, and stalked 
out upon his crutch, with his hand on my shoulder, 
leaving them in a disarray, and silenced by his 
volubility rather than convinced. 


262 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


‘‘Slow, lad, slow,” he said, “They might round 
upon us in a trinkle of an eye, if we was seen to 
hurry,” 

Yery deliberately, then, did we advance across the 
sand to where the doctor awaited us on the other 
side of the stockade, and as soon as we were within 
easy speaking distance. Silver stopped. 

“ You’ll make a note of this here also, doctor,” 
says he, “ and the boy’ll tell you how I saved his 
life, and were deposed for it, too, and you may lay 
to that. Doctor, when a man’s steering as near the 
wind as me — playing chuck-farthing with the last 
breath in h is body, like — you wouldn’t think it too 
much, mayhap, to give him one good word? 
You’ll please bear in mind it’s not my life only now 
— it’s that boy’s into the bargain ; and you’ll speak 
me fair, doctor, and give me a bit o’ hope to go on, 
for the sake of mercy.” 

Silver was a changed man, once he was out there 
and had his back to his friends and the blockhouse ; 
his cheeks seemed to have fallen in, his voice 
trembled ; never was a soul more dead in earnest. 

“YThy, John, you’re not afraid?” asked Dr. 
Livesey. 

“ Doctor, I’m no coward ; no, not I — not so much !” 
and he snapped his fingers. “ If I was I wouldn’t 
say it. But I’ll own up fairly. I’ve the shakes upon 
me for the gallows. You’re a good man and a 
true ; I never seen a better man I And you’ll not 
forget what I done good, not any more than you’ll 
forget the bad, I know. And I step aside — see 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


253 


here — and leave you and Jim alone. And you’ll 
put that down for me, too, for it’s a long stretch, is 
that !” 

So saying, he stepped back a little way, till he 
was out of earshot, and there sat down upon a tree 
stump and began to whistle ; spinning round now 
and again upon his seat so as to command a sights 
sometimes of me and the doctor, and sometimes of 
his unruly ruffians as they went to and fro in tho 
sand, between the fire — which they were busy re- 
kindling — and the house, from which they brought 
forth pork and bread to make the breakfast. 

“ So, Jim,” said the doctor sadly, “ here you are. 
As you have brewed, so shall you drink, my boy. 
Heaven knows, I cannot find it in my heart to blame 
you ; but this much I will say, be it kind or unkind : 
when Captain Smollett was well, you dared not have 
gone off ; and when he was ill, and couldn’t help it, 
by George, it was downright cowardly !” 

I will own that I here began to weep. “Doc- 
tor,” I said, “ you might spare me. I have blamed 
myself enough ; my life’s forfeit anyway, and I 
should have been dead by now, if Silver hadn’t stood 
for me ; and doctor, believe this, I can die — and I 
dare say I deserve it — but what I fear is torture. If 
they come to torture me ” 

“ Jim,” the doctor interrupted, and his voice was 
quite changed, “Jim, I can’t have this. Whip over, 
and we’ll run for it.” 

“ Doctor,” said I, “ 1 passed my word.” 

“I know, I know,” he cried. “We can’t help 
that, Jim, now I’ll take it on my shoulders, holus= 


254 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


bolus, blame and shame, my boy ; but stay here, I 
cannot let you. Jump I One jump, and you’re out, 
and we’ll run for it like antelopes.” 

“ITo,” I replied, “you know right well you 
wouldn’t do the thing yourself; neither you, nor 
squire, nor captain; and no more will I. Silver 
trusted me ; I passed my word, and back I go. But, 
doctor, you did not let me finish. If they come to 
torture me, I might let' slip a word of where the ship 
is ; for I got the ship, part by luck and part by risk- 
ing, and she lies in ISTorth Inlet, on the southern 
beach, and just below high water. At half tide she 
must be high and dry.” 

“ The ship !” exclaimed the doctor. 

Eapidly I described to him my adventures, and 
he heard me out in silence. 

“There is a kind of fate in this,” he observed, 
when I had done. “ Every step, it’s you that saves 
our lives ; and do you suppose by any chance that 
we are going to let you lose yours ? That would be 
a poor return, my boy. You found out the plot ; 
you found Ben Gunn — the best deed that ever you 
did, or will do, though you live to ninety. Oh, by 
Jupiter, and talking of Ben Gunn ! why, this is the 
mischief in person. Silver !” he cried, “ Silver ! — I’ll 
give you a piece of advice,” he continued, as the 
cook drew near again ; “ don’t you be in any great 
hurry after that treasure.” 

“ Why, sir, I do my possible, which that ain’t,” 
said Silver. “ I can only, asking your pardon, save 
my life and the boy’s by seeking for that treasure ; 
and you may lay to that.” 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


255 


“ W ell, Silver,” replied the doctor, “ if that is so, 
I’ll go one step further : look out for squalls when 
you find it.” 

‘‘Sir,” said Silver, “as between man and man, 
that’s too much and too little. What you’re after, 
why 3^ou left the blockhouse, why you given me 
that there chart, I don’t know, now, do I ? and yet 
I done your bidding with my eyes shut and never a 
word of hope ! But no, this here’s too much. If 
you won’t tell me what you mean plain oui, just say 
so, and I’ll leave the helm.” 

“ No,” said the doctor musingly, “ I’ve no right 
to say more ; it’s not my secret, you see. Silver, or 
I give you my word I’d tell it you. But I’ll go as 
far with you as I dare go, and a step beyond ; for 
I’ll have my wig sorted by the captain or I’m mis- 
taken ! And, first. I’ll give you a bit of hope : 
Silver, if we both get alive out of this wolf-trap. I’ll 
do my best to save you, short of perjury.” 

Silver’s face was radiant. “ You couldn’t say 
more, I’m sure, sir, not if you was my mother,” he 
cried. 

“Well, that’s my first concession,” added the 
doctor. “ My second is a piece of advice : Keep the 
boy close beside you, and when you need help, 
halloo. I’m off to seek it for you, and that itself 
will show you if I speak at random. Good-by, 
Jim.” 

And Dr. Livesey shook hands with me through 
the stockade, nodded to Silver, and set off at a brisk 
pace into the wood. 


256 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


CHAPTEK XXXI. 

THE TEEASUBE HUNT — FLINt’s POINTER. 

“ Jm,” said Silver, when we were alone, if I 
saved your life, you saved mine ; and I’ll not forget 
it. I seen the doctor waving you to run for it — 
with the tail of my eye, I did ; and I seen you say 
no, as plain as hearing. Jim, that’s one to you. This 
is the first glint of hope I had since the attack failed, 
and I owe it you. And now, Jim, we’re to go in 
for this here treasure hunting, with sealed orders, 
too, and I don’t like it ; and you and me must stick 
close, back to back like, and we’ll save our necks in 
spite o’ fate and fortune.” 

Just then a man hailed us from the fire that 
breakfast was ready, and we were soon seated here 
and there about the sand over biscuit and fried junk. 
They had lit a fire fit to roast an ox ; and it was 
now grown so hot that they could only approach it 
from the windward, and even there not without pre 
caution. In the same wasteful spirit, they had 
cooked, I suppose, three times more than we could 
eat ; and one of them, with an empty laugh, threw 
what was left into the fire, which blazed and roared 
again over this unusual fuel. I never in my life saw 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


257 


men so careless of the morrow ; hand to mouth is 
the only word that can describe their way of doing ; 
and what with wasted food and sleeping sentries, 
though they were bold enough for a brush and be 
done with it, I could see their entire unfitness for 
anything like a prolonged campaign. 

Even Silver, eating away, with Captain Flint 
upon his shoulder, had not a word of blame for their 
recklessness. And this the more surprised me, for I 
thought he had never shown himself so cunning as 
he did then. 

“ Ay, mates,” said he, “ it’s lucky you have Bar- 
becue to think for 3^ou with this here head. I got 
what I wanted, I did. Sure enough they have the 
ship. Where they have it, I don’t know yet ; but 
once we hit the treasure, we’ll have to jump about 
and find out. And then, mates, us that has the 
boats, I reckon, has the upper hand.” 

Thus he kept running on, with his mouth full of 
the hot bacon : thus he restored their hope and con- 
fidence, and, I more than suspect, repaired his own 
at the same time. 

“ As for hostage,” he continued, ‘‘ that’s his last 
talk, I guess, with them he loves so dear. I’ve got 
my piece o’ news, and thanky to him for that ; but 
it’s over and done. I’ll take him in a line when we 
go treasure hunting, for we’ll keep him like so much 
gold, in case of accidents, you mark, and in the 
meantime. Once we got the ship and treasure both, 
and off to sea like jolly companions, why, then, we’ll 
talk Mr. Hawkins over, we will, and we’ll give him 
his share, to be sure, for all his kindness. 


258 


TREASURE ISLAND 


It was no wonder the men were in a good humor 
now. For my part 1 was horribly cast down. 
Should the scheme he had now sketched prove 
feasible, Silver, already doubly a traitor, would not 
hesitate to adopt it. He had still a foot in either 
camp, and there was no doubt he would prefer 
wealth and freedom with the pirates to a bare escape 
from hanging, which was the best he had to hope 
on our side. 

Hay, and even if things so fell out that he was 
forced to keep his faith with Dr. Livesey, even then 
what danger lay before us ! What a moment that 
would be when the suspicions of his followers turned 
to certainty, and he and I should have to fight for 
dear life — he, a cripple, and I, a boy — against five 
strong and active seamen ! 

Add to this double apprehension, the mystery 
that still hung over the behavior of my friends ; 
their unexplained desertion of the stockade ; their 
inexplicable cession of the chart; or, harder still to 
understand, the doctor’s last warning to Silver, 

Look out for squalls when you find it and you 
will readily believe how little taste I found in my 
breakfast, and with how uneasy a heart I set forth 
behind my captors on the quest for treasure. 

We made a curious figure, had any one been there 
to see us ; all in soiled sailor clothes, and all but me 
armed to the teeth. Silver had two guns slung 
about him— one before and one behind — besides the 
great cutlass at his waist, and a pistol in each pocket 
of his square-tailed coat. To complete his strange 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


259 


appearance, Captain Flint sat perched upon his 
shoulder and gabbling odds and ends of purposeless 
sea- talk. I had a line about my waist, and followed 
obediently after the sea cook, who held the loose 
end of the rope, now in his freehand, now between 
his powerful teeth. For all the world I was led 
like a dancing bear. 

The other men were variously burdened ; some 
carr3dng picks and shovels — for that had been the* 
very first necessary they brought ashore from the 
Hispaniola — others laden with pork, bread, and 
brandy for the midday meal. All the stores, I ob- 
served, came from our stock ; and I could see the 
truth of Silver’s words the night before. Had he 
not struck a bargain with the doctor, he and his 
mutineers, deserted by the ship, must have been 
driven to subsist on clear water and the proceeds of 
their hunting. Water would have been little to 
their taste ; a sailor is not usually a good shot ; and 
besides all that, when they were so short of eata- 
bles, it was not likely they would be very flush of 
powder. 

Well, thus equipped, we all set out — even the fel- 
low with the broken head, who should certainly 
have kept in shadow — and straggled, one after 
another, to the beach, where the two gigs awaited 
us. Even these bore trace of the drunken folly of the 
pirates, one in a broken thwart, and both in their 
muddy and un bailed condition. Both were to be 
carried along with us, for the sake of safety ; and 
so, with our numbers divided between them, we se^ 
forth upon the bosom of the anchorage. 


260 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


As we pulled over, there was some discussion on 
the chart. The red cross was, of course, far too 
large to be a guide ; and the terms of the note on 
the back, as you will hear, admitted of some 
ambiguity. They ran, the reader may remember, 
thus ; 

“ Tall tree, Spyglass shoulder, bearing a point to the N 
of N.N.E. 

“ Skeleton Island E.S.E. and by E. 

“ Ten feet.” 

A tall tree was thus the principal mark. Now, 
right before us, the anchorage was bounded by a 
plateau from two to three hundred feet high, ad- 
joining on the north the sloping southern shoulder 
of the Spyglass, and rising again toward the south 
into the rough, cliffy eminence called the Mizzen- 
mast Hill. The top of the plateau was dotted 
thickly with pine trees of varying height. Every 
here and there, one of a different species rose forty 
or fifty feet clear above its neighbors, and which of 
these was the particular “ tall tree ” of Captain Flint 
could only be decided on the spot, and by the read- 
ings of the compass. 

Yet, although that was the case, every man on 
board the boats had picked a favorite of his own 
ere we were halfway over. Long John alone shrug- 
ging his shoulders and bidding them wait till they 
were there. 

We pulled easily, by Silver’s directions, not to 
weary the hands prematurely; and, after quite a 


TREASTIRB! ISLAND. 


261 


long passage, landed at the mouth of the second 
river — that which runs down a woody cleft of the 
Spyglass. Thence, bending to our left, we began 
to ascend the slope toward the plateau. 

At the first outset, heavy, miry ground and a 
matted, marish vegetation, greatly delayed our 
progress ; but by little and little the hill began to 
steepen and become stony under foot, and the wood 
to change its character and to grow in a more open 
order. It was, indeed, a most pleasant portion of 
the island that we were now approaching. A heavy 
scented broom and many flowering shrubs had 
almost taken the place of grass. Thickets of green 
nutmeg were dotted here and there with the red 
columns and the broad shadow of the pines ; and 
the first mingled their spice with the aroma of the 
others. The air, besides, was fresh and stirring, 
and this, under the sheer sunbeams, was a wonder- 
ful refreshment to our senses. 

The party spread itself abroad, in a fan shape, 
shouting and leaping to and fro. About the center, 
and a good way behind the rest. Silver and I fol- 
lowed — I tethered by my rope, he plowing, with 
deep pants, among the sliding gravel. From time 
to time, indeed, I had to lend him a hand, or he 
must have missed his footing and fallen backward 
down the hill. 

We had thus proceeded for about half a mile, 
and were approaching the brow of the plateau, 
when the man upon the farthest left began to cry 
aloud, ?vs if in terror. Shout after shout eame 


262 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


from him, and the others began to run in his 
direction. 

“ He can’t ’a’ found the treasure,” said old Mor- 
gan, hurrying past us from the right, “for that’s 
clean a-top.” 

Indeed, as we found when we also reached the 
spot, it was something very different. At the foot 
of a pretty big pine, and involved in a green creeper, 
which had even partly lifted some of the smaller 
bones, a human skeleton lay, with a few shreds of 
clothing, on the ground. I believe a chill struck for 
a moment to every heart. 

“ He was a seaman,” said George Merry, who, 
bolder than the rest, had gone up close, and was ex- 
amining the rags of clothing. “ Leastways, this is 
good sea cloth.” 

“ Ay, ay,” said Silver, “ like enough ; you wouldn’t 
look to find a bishop here, I reckon. But what 
sort of a way is that for bones to lie ? ’Taint in 
natur’.” 

Indeed, on a second glance, it seemed impossible 
to fancy that the body was in a natural position. 
But for some disarray (the work, perhaps, of the 
binds that had fed upon him, or of the slow-growing 
creeper that had gradually enveloped his remains), 
the man lay perfectly straight — his feet pointing in 
one direction, his hands, raised above his head like a 
diver’s, pointing directly in the opposite. 

“ I’ve taken a notion into my old numskull,” ob- 
served Silver. “ Here’s the compass ; there’s the 
tip-top pint o’ Skeleton Island, stickin’ out like a 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


263 


tooth. Just take a bearing, will you, along the line 
of them bones.” 

It was done. The body pointed straight in the 
direction of the island, and the compass read duly 
E.S.E. and by E. 

“ I thought so,” cried the cook ; “ this here is a 
p’inter. Eight up there is our line for the Pole Star 
and the jolly dollars. But, by thunder ! if it don’t 
make me cold inside to think of Flint. This is one 
of his jokes, and no mistake. Him and these six 
was alone here ; he killed ’em, every man ; and this 
one he hauled here and laid down by compass, shiver 
ray timbers! They’re long bones, and the hair’s 
been yellow. Ay, that would be Allardyce. You 
mind Allard3"ce, Tom Morgan ?” 

‘‘ Ay, ay,” returned Morgan, “ I mind him ; he 
owed me money, he did, and took my knife ashore 
with him.” 

“ Speaking of knives,” said another, “ why don’t 
we find his’n lying round ? Flint warn’t the man to 
pick a seaman’s pocket; and the birds, I guess, 
would leave it be.” 

“ By the powers, and that’s true 1” cried Silver. 

“ There ain’t a thing left here,” said Merry, still 
feeling round among the bones, “ not a copper doit 
nor a baccy box. It don’t look nat’ral to me.” 

“Ho, by gum, it don’t,” agreed Silver; “not 
nat’ral, nor not nice, says you. Great guns I mess- 
mates, but if Flint was living, this would be a hot 
spot for you and me. Six they were, and six are wq ; 
and bones is what they are now.” 


264 TREASTTRE ISLAND. 

“ I saw him dead with these here deadlights,” said 
Morgan. “ Billy took me in. There he laid, with 
penny-pieces on his eyes.” 

“Dead — ay, sure enough he’s dead and gone 
oelow,” said the fellow with the bandage ; “ but if 
ever sperrit walked, it would be Flint’s. Dear heart, 
but he died bad, did Flint !” 

“ Ay, that he did,” observed another ; “ now he 
raged, and now he hollered for the rum, and now he 
sang. ‘ Fifteen Men’ were his only song, mates ; 
and I tell 3"ou true, I never rightly liked to hear it 
since. It was main hot, and the windy was open, 
and I hear that old song cornin’ out as clear as clear 
— and the deathhaul on the man already.” 

“ Come, come,” said Silver, “ stow this talk. He’s 
dead, and he don’t walk, that I know ; leastwaj^s, 
he won’t walk by day, and you may lay to that. 
Care killed a cat. Fetch ahead for the doubloons.” 

We started, certainly ; but in Spite of the hot sun 
and the staring daylight, the pirates no longer ran 
separate and shouting through the wood, but kept 
side by side and spoke with bated breath. The 
terror of the dead buccaneer had fallen on their 
spirits. 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


265 


J CHAPTEE XXXII. 

THE TREASURE HUNT — THE VOICE AMONG THE TREES. 

Partly from the damping influence of this alarm, 
partly to rest Silver and the sick folk, the whole 
party sat down as soon as they had gained the brow 
of the ascent. 

The plateau being somewhat tilted toward the 
west, this spot on which we had paused commanded 
a wide prospect on either hand. Before us, over the 
tree tops, we beheld the Cape of the Woods fringed 
with surf ; behind, we not only looked down upon 
the anchorage and Skeleton Island, but saw — clear 
across the spit and the eastern lowlands — a great 
field of open sea upon the east. Sheer above us 
rose the Spyglass, here dotted with single pines, 
there black with precipices. There was no sound 
but that of the distant breakers, mounting from all 
round, and the chirp of countless insects in the 
brush. Not a man, not a sail upon the sea; the 
very largeness of the view increased the sense of 
solitude. 

Silver, as he sat, took certain bearings with his 
compass. 


266 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


“ There are three ‘ tall trees,’ ” said he, about in 
the right line from Skeleton Island. ‘ Spyglass 
Shoulder,’ 1 take it, means that lower p’int there. 
It’s child’s play to find the stuff now. I’ve half a 
mind to dine first.” 

“ I don’t feel sharp,” growled Morgan. “ Thinkin 
o’ Flint — I think it were — as done me.” 

“ Ah, well, my son, you praise your stars he’s 
dead,” said Silver. 

“ He were an ugly devil,” cried a third pirate, 
with a shudder ; “ that blue in the face, too !” 

“ That was how the rum took him,” added Merry. 

“ Blue ! well, I reckon he was blue. That’s a true 
word.” 

Ever since they had found the skeleton and got 
upon this train of thought, they had spoken lower 
and lower, and they had almost got to whispering 
by now, so that the sound of their talk hardly inter- 
rupted the silence of the wood. All of a sudden, 
out of the middle of the trees in front of us, a thin, 
high, trembling voice struck up the well-known air 
and words : 

“Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest — 

Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum !” 

I never have seen men more dreadfully affected 
than the pirates. The color went from their six 
faces like enchantment ; some leaped to their feet, 
some clawed hold of others ; Morgan groveled on 
the ground. 

“ It’s Flint, by T ^'ried Merry. 


2REASURE ISLAND. 


267 


The song had stopped as suddenly as it began — 
broken off, you would have said, in the middle of a 
note, as though some one had laid his hand upon the 
singer’s mouth. Coming so far through the clear, 
sunny atmosphere among the green tree-tops, I 
thought it had sounded airily and sweetly ; and the 
effect on my companions was the stranger. 

“Come,” said Silver, struggling with his ashen 
lips to get the word out, “ this won’t do. Stand by 
to go about. This is a rum start, and I can’t name 
the voice : but it’s some one skylarking — some one 
that’s flesh and blood, and you may lay to that.” 

His courage had come back as he spoke, and some 
of the color to his face along with it. Already the 
others had begun to lend an ear to this encourage- 
ment, and were coming a little to themselves, when 
the same voice broke out again — not this time sing- 
ing, but in a faint, distant hail, that echoed yet 
fainter among the clefts of the Spyglass. 

“Darby M’Graw,” it wailed — for that is the 
word that best describes the sound — “ Darby 
M’Graw ! Darby M’Graw !” again and again and 
again ; and then rising a little higher, and with an 
oath that I leave out, “ Fetch aft the rum. Darby !” 

The buccaneers remained rooted to the ground, 
their eyes starting from their heads. Long after 
the voice had died away they still stared in silence, 
dreadfully, before them. 

“ That fixes it !” gasped one. “ Let’s go.” 

“ They was his last words,” moaned Morgan, “ his 
last words above board.” 


268 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


Dick had his Bible out, and was praying volubly. 
He had been well brought up, had Dick, before he 
came to sea and fell among bad companions. 

Still, Silver was unconquered. I could hear his 
teeth rattle in his head; but he had not yet surren- 
dered. 

“ Nobody in this here island ever heard of Darby,” 
he muttered ; “ not one but us that’s here.” And 
then, making a great effort, “ Shipmates,” he cried, 
“ I’m here to get that stuff, and I’ll not be bea^t by 
man nor devil. I never was feared of Flint in his 
life, and, by the powers. I’ll face him dead. There’s 
seven hundred thousand pound not a quarter of a 
mile from here. When did ever a gentleman o’ 
fortune show his , stern to that much dollars, for 
a boozy old seaman with a blue mug — and him 
dead, too ?” 

But there was no sign of re-awakening courage in 
his followers ; rather, indeed, of growing terror at the 
irreverence of his words. 

“Belay there, John !” said Merry. “Don’t you 
cross a sperrit.” 

And the rest were all too terrified to reply. They 
would have run away severally had they dared ; but 
fear kept them together, and kept them close by 
John, as if his daring helped them. He, on his 
part, had pretty well fought his weakness down. 

“Sperrit? Well, maybe,” he said. “But there’s 
one thing not clear to me. There was an echo. 
Now, no man ever seen a sperrit with a shadow; 
well, then, what’s he doing with an echo to him. 


TBEASTJUK ISLAND. 


269 


[ should like to know ? That ain’t in natur’, 
surely 

This argument seemed weak enough to me. But 
you can never tell what will affect the superstitious, 
and, to my wonder, George Merry was greatly 
relieved. 

“Well, that’s so,” he said. “You’ve a head upon 
your shoulders, John, and no mistake. ’Bout ship, 
mates! This here crew is on a wrong: tack, I do 
believe. And come to think on it, it was like Flint’s 
voice, I grant you, but not just so clear-away like it, 
after all. It was liker somebody else’s voice now 
' — it was liker ” 

“ By the powers, Ben Gunn 1” roared Silver. 

“ Ay, and so it were,” cried Morgan, springing on 
his knees. “ Ben Gunn it were 1” 

“ It don’t make much odds, do it, now ?” asked 
Dick. “ Ben Gunn’s not here in the body, any more’n 
FHnt.” 

But the older hands greeted this remark with 
scorn. 

“ Why, nobody minds Ben Gunn,” cried Merry ; 
“ dead or alive, nobody minds him.” 

It was extraordinary how their spirits had re- 
turned, and how the natural color had revived in 
their faces. Soon they were chatting together, with 
intervals of listening; and not long after, hearing 
no further sound, they shouldered the tools and set 
forth again. Merry walking first with Silver’s com- 
pass to keep them on the right line with Skeleton 
Island. He had said the truth ; dead or alive, no- 
body minded Ben Gunn. 


m 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


Dick alone still held his Bible, and looked around 
nirn as he went, with fearful glances ; but he found 
no sympathy, and Silver even joked him on his 

f recautions. 

“ I told you,” said he — “ I told you you had 
sp’iled your Bible. If it ain’t no good to swear by, 
what do you suppose a sperrit would give for it ? 
Not that !” and he snapped his big fingers, halting 
a moment on his crutch. 

But Dick was not to be comforted ; indeed, it was 
soon plain to me that the lad was falling sick ; has- 
tened by heat, exhaustion, and the shock of his 
alarm, the fever predicted by Dr. Livesey was evi- 
dently^ growing swiftly higher. 

It was fine open walking here, upon the summit ; 
our way lay a little down-hill, for, as I have said, 
the plateau tilted toward the west. The pines, 
great and small, grew wide apart; and even be- 
tween the clumps of nutmeg and azalea, wide open 
spaces baked in the hot sunshine. Striking, as we 
did, pretty near northwest across the island, we 
drew, on the one hand, ever nearer under the shoul- 
ders of the Spyglass, and on the other, looked ever 
wider over that western bay where I had once 
tossed and trembled in the coracle. 

The first of the tall trees was reached, and by the 
bearing proved the wrong one. So with the sec- 
ond. The third rose nearly two hundred feet into 
the air above a clump of underwood ; a giant of a 
vegetable, with a red column as big as a cottage, 
and a wide shadow around in which a company 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


271 


could have maneuvered. It was conspicuous far to 
sea both on the east and west, and might have been 
entered as a sailing mark upon the chart. 

But it was not its size that now impressed my 
companions ; it was the knowledge that seven hun- 
dred thousand pounds in gold lay somewhere buried 
below its spreading shadow. The thought of the 
money, as they drew nearer, swallowed up their 
previous terrors. Their eyes burned in their heads ; 
their feet grew speedier and lighter ; their whole 
soul was bound up in that fortune, that whole life- 
time of extravagance and pleasure, that lay waiting 
there for each of them. 

Silver hobbled, grunting, on his crutch ; his nos- 
trils stood out and quivered ; he cursed like a mad- 
man when the flies settled on his hot and shiny 
countenance ; he plucked furiously at the line that 
held me to him, and, from time to time, turned his 
eyes upon me with a deadly look. Certainly he 
took no pains to hide his thoughts ; and certainly I 
read them like print. In the immediate nearness of 
the gold, all else had been forgotten ; his promise 
and the doctor’s warning were both things of the 
past ; and I could not doubt that he hoped to seize 
upon the treasure, find and board the Hispaniola 
under cover of night, cut every honest throat about 
that island, and sail away as he had at first intended, 
laden with crimes and riches. 

Shaken as I was with these alarms, it was hard 
for me to keep up with the rapid pace of the treas- 
ure-hunters. How and again I stumbled ; and it 


272 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


was then that Silver plucked so roughly at the rope 
and launched at me his murderous glances. Dick, 
who had dropped behind us, and now brought up 
the rear, was babbling to himself both prayers and 
curses, as his fever kept rising. Tliis also added to 
my wretchedness, and, to crown all, I was haunted 
by the thought of the tragedy that had once been 
acted on that plateau, when that ungodly buccaneer 
with the blue face — he who died at Savannah, sing- 
ing and shouting for drink — had there, with his owm 
hand, cut down his six accomplices. This grove, 
that was now so peaceful, must then have rung with 
cries, I thought ; and even with the thought I could 
believe I heard it ringing still. 

We were now at the margin of the thicket. 

“ Huzza, mates, all together !” shouted Merry ; 
and the foremost broke into a run. 

And suddenly, not ten yards further, we beheld 
them stop. A low cry arose. Silver doubled his 
pace, digging away with the foot of his crutch like 
one possessed ; and next moment he and I had come 
also to a dead halt. 

Before us was a great excavation, not very 
recent, for the sides had fallen in and grass had 
sprouted on the bottom. In this were the shaft of 
a pick broken in two and the boards of several pack 
ing cases strewn around. On one of these boards 1 
saw, branded with a hot iron, the name Walrus-^ 
the name of Flint’s ship. 

All was clear to probation. The cache had been 
found and rifled : the seven hundred thousand pounds 
were gone! 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


2:3 


CHAPTER XXXIIL 

THE FALL OF A CHIEFTAIN. 

There never was such an overturn in this worM, 
Each of these six men was as though he had been 
struck. But with Silver the blow passed almost in- 
stantly. Every thought of his soul had been set 
full-stretch, like a racer, on that money ; well, he 
was brought up in a single second, dead ; and he 
kept his head, found his temper, and changed his 
plan before the others had had time to realize the 
disappointment. 

“Jim,” he whispered, “take that, and stand by 
for trouble.” 

And he passed me a double-barreled pistol. 

At the same time he began quietly moving north- 
ward, and in a few steps had put the hollow between 
us two and the other five. Then he looked at me 
and nodded, as much as to say, “ Here is a narrow 
corner,” as, indeed, I thought it was. His looks 
were now quite friendly ; and I was so revolted at 
these constant changes, that I could not forbear 
whispering, “ So you’ve changed sides again.” 

There was no time left for him to answer in. The 
buccaneers, with oaths and cries, began to leap, one 


274 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


after another, into the pit, and to dig with their 
fingers, throwing the boards aside as they did so. 
Morgan found a piece of gold. He held it up with 
a perfect spout of oaths. It was a two-guinea piece, 
and it went from hand to hand among them for a 
quarter of a minute. 

“ Two guineas !” roared Merry, shaking it at Sil- 
ver. “ That’s your seven hundred thousand pounds, 
is it? You’re the man for bargains, ain’t you? 
You’re him that never bungled nothing, you wooden- 
headed lubber !” 

‘‘ Dig away, boys,” said Silver, with the coolest 
insolence ; “ you’ll find some pig-nuts and I shouldn’t 
wonder.” 

“ Pig-nuts !” repeated Merry in a scream. “ Mates, 
do you hear that ? I tell you, now, that man there 
knew it all along. Look in the face of him, and 
you’ll see it wrote there.” 

Ah, Merry,” remarked Silver, standing for cap’n 
again? You’re a pushing lad, to be sure.” 

But this time every one was entirely in Merry’s 
favor. They began to scramble out of the excava- 
tion, darting furious glances behind them. One 
thing I observed, which looked well for us : they all 
got out upon the opposite side from Silver. 

Well, there we stood, two on one side, five on the 
other, the pit between us, and nobody screwed up 
high enough to offer the first blow^ Silver never 
moved ; he watched them, very upright on his 
crutch, and looked as cool as ever I saw him. He 
was brave, and no mistake. 


TBEASURE ISLAND. 


275 


At last Merry seemed to think a speech might 
help matters. 

“Mates,” says he, “there’s two of them alone 
there ; one’s the old cripple that brought us all here 
and blundered us down to this ; the other’s that cub 
that I mean to have the heart of. J^ow, mates ” 

He was raising his arm and his voice, and plainly 
meant to lead a charge. But just then — crack ! 
crack ! crack ! — three musket-shots flashed out of 
the thicket. Merry tumbled head foremast into 
the excavation; the man with the bandage spun 
round like a teetotum, and fell all his length upon 
his side, where he lay dead, but still twitching; and 
the other three turned and ran for it with all their 
might. 

Before you could wink. Long John had flred two 
barrels of a pistol into the struggling Merry ; and as 
the man rolled up his eyes at him in the last agony, 
“ George,” said he, “ I reckon I settled you.” 

At the same moment, the doctor. Gray and Ben 
Gunn joined us, with smoking muskets, from among 
the nutmeg trees. 

“ Forward !” cried the doctor. “ Double quick, 
my lads. We must head ’em off the boats.” 

And we set off at a great pace, sometimes plun- 
ging through the bushes to the chest. 

I tell you, but Silver was anxious to keep up with 
us. The work that man went through, leaping on 
his crutch till the muscles of his chest were fit to 
burst, was work no sound man ever equaled ; and 
so thinks the doctor. As it was, he was already 


276 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


thirty yards behind us, and on the verge of stran* 
gling, when we reached the brow of the slope. 

“ Doctor,” he hailed, “ see there ! no hurry !” 

Sure enough there was no hurry. In a more open 
part of the plateau we could see the three survivors 
still running in the same direction as they had 
started, right for Mizzenmast Hill. We were 
already between them and the boats; and so we 
four sat down to breathe, while Long John, mop- 
ping his face, came slowly up with us. 

“ Thank ye kindly, doctor,” says he. “ You came 
in in about the nick, I guess, for me and Hawkins. 
And so it’s you, Ben Gunn!” he added. “Well, 
you’re a nice one to be sure.” 

“ I’m Ben Gunn, I am,” replied the maroon, 
wriggling like an eel in his embarrassment. “ And,” 
he added, after a long pause, “ how do, Mr. Silver ? 
Pretty well, I thank ye, says you.” 

“ Ben, Ben.” murmured Silver. “ to think as you’ve 
done me !” 

The doctor sent back Gray for one of the pick- 
axes, deserted, in their flight, by the mutineers ; and 
then as we proceeded leisurely down hill to where 
the boats were lying, related, in a few words, what 
had taken place. It was a story that profoundly 
interested Silver ; and Ben Gunn, the half-idiot 
maroon, was the hero from beginning to end. 

Ben, in his long, lonely wanderings about the 
island, had found the skeleton — it was he that had 
rifled it ; he had found the treasure ; he had dug it 
up (it was the haft of his pickaxe that lay broken in 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


277 


the excavation) ; he had carried it on his back, in 
man}^ weary journeys, from the foot of the tall pine 
to a cave he had on the two-pointed hill at the 
northeast angle of the island, and there it had lain 
stored in safety since two months before the arrival 
of the Hispaniola. 

When the doctor had wormed this secret from 
him, on the afternoon of the attack, and when next 
morning he saw the anchorage deserted, he had 
gone to Silver, given him the chart, which was now 
useless — given him the stores, for Ben Gunn’s cave 
was well supplied with goats’ meat salted by him- 
self — given anything and everything to get a 
chance of moving in safety from the stockadb to the 
two-pointed hill, there to be clear of malaria and 
keep a guard upon the money. 

“ As for you, Jim,” he said, “ it went against my 
heart, but I did what I thought best for those who 
had stood by their duty ; and if you were not one 
of these, whose fault was it ?” 

That morning, finding that I was to be involved 
in the horrid disappointment he had prepared for 
the mutineers, he had run all the way to the cave, 
and, leaving the squire to guard the captain, had 
taken Gray and the maroon, and started, making 
the diagonal across the island, to be at hand beside 
the pine. Soon, however, he saw that our party 
had the start of him ; and Ben Gunn, being fleet of 
foot, bad been despatched in front to do his best 
alone. Then it had occurred to him to work upon the 
superstitions of his former shipmates ; and ho wa5 


278 


TREASUME ISLAND, 


SO far successful that Gray and the doctor had 
come up and were already ambushed before the 
arrival of the treasure-hunters. 

“Ah,” said Silver, “it were fortunate for me 
that I had Hawkins here. You would have let old 
John be cut to bits, and never given it a thought, 
doctor.” 

“Hot a thought,” replied Dr. Livesey cheerily. 

And by this time we had reached the gigs. The 
doctor, with the pickaxe, demolished one of them, 
and then we all got aboard the other, and set out to 
go round by sea for Horth Inlet. 

This was a run of eight or nine miles. Silver, 
though he was almost killed already with fatigue, 
was set to an oar, like the rest of us, and we were 
soon skimming swiftly over a smooth sea. Soon we 
passed out of the straits and doubled the southeast 
corner of the island, round which, four days ago, we 
had towed the Hispaniola. 

As we passed the two-pointed hill, we could see 
the black mouth of Ben Gunn’s cave, and a figure 
standing by it, leaning on a musket. It was the 
squire, and we waved a handkerchief and gave him 
three cheers, in which the voice of Silver joined as 
heartily as any. 

Three miles farther, just inside the mouth of 
North Inlet, what should we meet but the Hispaniola, 
cruising by herself. The last flood had lifted her ; 
and had there been much wind, or a strong tide 
current, as in the southern anchorage, we should 
never have found her more, or found her stranded 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


27 »- 

beyond help. As it was, there was little amiss 
beyond the wreck of the mainsail. Another anchor 
was got ready, and dropped in a fathom and a half 
of water. We all pulled round again to Kum Cove, 
the nearest point for Ben Gunn’s treasure-hoase ; 
and then Gray, single-handed, returned with the 
gig to the Hispaniola, where he was to pass the night 
on guard. 

A gentle slope ran up from the beach to the 
entrance of the cave. At the top the squire met. 
us. To me he was cordial and kind, saying 
nothing of my escapade, either in the way of 
blame or praise. At Silver’s polite salute he some- 
what flushed. 

“ J ohn Silver,” he said, “ you’re a prodigious 
villain and tnpostor — a monstrous imposter, sir. I 
am told I am not to prosecute you. Well, then, I 
will not. But the dead men, sir, hang about your 
neck like millstones.” 

“ Thank you kindly, sir,” replied Long John, again 
saluting. 

“ I dare you to thank me !” cried the squire. “ It 
is a gross dereliction of my duty. Stand back.” 

And thereupon we all entered the cave. It was a 
large, airy place, with a little spring and a pool of 
clear water, overhung with ferns. The floor was 
sand. Before a big fire lay Captain Smollett ; and 
in a far corner, only duskily flickered over by the 
blaze, I beheld great heaps of coin and quadrilaterals 
built of bars of gold. That was Flint’s treasure 
that we had come so far to seek, and that had cost 


280 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


already the lives of seventeen men from the His< 
paniola. How many it had cost in the amassing, 
what blood and sorrow, what good ships scuttled 
on the deep, what brave men walking the plank 
blindfold, what shot of cannon, what shame and lies 
and cruelty, perhaps no man alive could tell. Yet 
there were still three upon that island — Silver, and 
old Morgan, and Ben Gunn — who had each taken 
his share in these crimes, as each had hoped in vain 
to share in the reward. 

“ Come in, Jim,” said the captain. ‘‘ You’re a 
good boy in your line, Jim ; but I don’t think you 
and me’ll go to sea again. You’re too much of the 
born favorite for me. Is that you, John Silver? 
What brings 3^ou here, man ?” 

“ Come back to my dooty, sir,” returned Silver. 

“ Ah !” said the captain ; and that was all he 
said. 

What a supper I had of it that night, with all my 
friends around me ; and what a meal it was, with 
Ben Gunn’s salted goat, and some delicacies, and a 
bottle of old wine from the Hispaniola. Never, I 
am sure, were people gayer or happier. And there 
was Silver, sitting back almost out of the firelight, 
but eating heartily, prompt to spring forward when 
anything was wanted, even joining quietly in our 
laughter — the same bland, polite, obsequious seaman 
©f the voyage out. 


TBEASUBE ISLAND. 


281 


CHAPTER XXXIY. 

AND LAST. 

The next morning we fell early to work, for the 
transportation of this great mass of gold near a 
mile by land to the beach, and thence three miles 
by boat to the Hispaniola, was a considerable task 
for so small a number of workmen. The three fel- 
lows still abroad upon the island did not greatly 
trouble us ; a single sentry on the shoulder of the 
hill was sufficient to insure us against any sudden 
onslaught, and we thought, besides, they had had 
more than enough of fighting. 

Therefore the work was pushed on briskly. Gray 
and Ben Gunn came and went with the boat, while 
the rest, during their absences, piled treasure on the 
beach. Two of the bars, slung in a rope’s-end, made 
a good load for a grown man — one that he was 
glad to walk slowly with. For my part, as I was 
not much use at carrying, I was kept busy all day 
in the cave, packing the minted money into bread- 
bags. 

It was a strange collection, like Billy Bones’ 
hoard for the diversity of coinage, but so much 
larger and so much more varied that I think I never 


282 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


had more pleasure than in sorting them. English, 
French, Spanish, Portuguese, Georges, and Louises, 
doubloons and double guineas and moidores and 
sequins, the pictures of all the kings of Europe for 
the last hundred years, strange Oriental pieces 
stamped with what looked like wisps of string or 
bits of spider’s web, round pieces and square pieces, 
and pieces bored through the middle, as if to wear 
them round your neck— nearly every variety of 
money in the world must, I think, have found a 
place in that collection ; and for number, I am sure 
they were like autumn leaves, so that my back 
ached with stooping and my fingers with sorting 
them out. 

Day after day this work went on ; by every 
evening a fortune had been stowed aboard, but there 
was another fortune waiting for the morrow ; and 
all this time we heard nothing of the three surviving 
mutineers. 

At last — I think it was on the third night — the 
doctor and I were strolling on the shoulder of the 
hill where it overlooks the lowlands of the isle, 
when, from out the thick darkness below, the wind 
brought us a noise between shrieking and singing. 
It was only a snatch that reached our ears, followed 
by the former silence. 

“ Heaven forgive them,” said the doctor, “ ’tis the 
mutineers !” 

‘‘ All drunk, sir,” struck in the voice of Silver 
from behind us. 

Silver, I should say, was allowed his entire liberty, 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


283 


and, in spite of daily rebuffs, seemed to regard him 
self once more as quite a privileged and friendly 
dependant. Indeed, it was remarkable how well he 
bore these slights, and with what unwearying polite 
ness he kept on trying to ingratiate himself with all 
Yet, I think, none treated him better than a dog ; 
unless it was Ben Gunn, who was still terribly 
afraid of his old quartermaster, or myself, who had 
really something to thank him for ; although for 
that matter, I suppose, I had reason to think even 
worse of him than anybody else, for I had seen him 
meditating a fresh treachery upon the plateau. 
Accordingly, it was pretty gruffly that the doctor 
answered him. 

“ Drunk or raving,” said he. 

“ Eight you were, sir,” replied Silver ; “ and 
precious little odds which, to you and me.” 

“ I suppose you would hardly ask me to call you 
a humane man,” returned the doctor, with a sneer, 
“and so my feelings may surprise you. Master 
Silver. But if I were sure they were raving — as I 
am morally certain one, at least, of them is down 
with fever — I should leave this camp, and at what- 
ever risk to my own carcass, take them the assist 
ance of my skill.” 

“ Ask your pardon, sir, you would be very wrong,” 
quoth Silver. “You would lose your precious life, 
and you may lay to that. I’m on your side now, 
hand and glove ; and I shouldn’t wish for to see the 
party weakened, let alone yourself, seeing as I know 
what 1 owes you. But these men down there, they 


284 


theasube island. 


couldn’t keep their word — no, not supposing they 
wished to ; and what’s more, they could’nt believe 
as you could.” 

“ N’o,” said the doctor. ‘‘ You’re the man to keep 
your word, we know that.” 

Well, that was about the last news we had of the 
three pirates. Only once we heard a gunshot a 
great way off, and supposed them to be hunting, 
A council was held, and it was decided that we 
must desert them on the island — to the huge glee, I 
must say, of Ben Gunn, and with the strong ap- 
proval of Gray. We left a good stock of powder 
and shot, the bulk of the salt goat, a few medicines, 
and bome other necessaries, tools, clothing, a spare 
sail, a fathom or two of rope, and, by the partic- 
ular desire of the doctor, a handsome present of 
tobacco. 

That was about our last doing on the island. 
Before that, we had got the treasure stowed, and had 
shipped enough water and the remainder of the 
goat meat, in case of any distress ; and at last, one 
fine morning, we weighed anchor, which was about 
all that we could manage, and stood out of North 
Inlet, the same colors flying that the captain had 
flown and fought under at the palisade. 

The three fellows must have been watching us 
closer than we thought for, as we soon had proved. 
For, coming through the narrows, we had to lie 
very near the southern point, and there we saw all 
three of them kneeling together on a spit of sand, 
with their arms raised in supplication. It went to all 


TREASURE ISLAND, 


285 


our hearts, I think, to leave them in that wretched 
state ; but we could not risk another mutiny ; and 
to take them home for the gibbet would have been 
a cruel sort of kindness. The doctor hailed them 
and told them of the stores we had left, and where 
they were to find them. But they continued to 
call us by name, and appealed to us, for God’s 
sake, to be merciful, and not leave them to die in 
such a place. 

At last, seeing the ship still bore on her course, 
and was now swiftly drawing out of earshot, one of 
them — I know not which it was — leaped to his feet 
with a hoarse cry, whipped his musket to his shoul- 
der, and sent a shot whistling over Silvers head 
and through the mainsail. 

After that we kept under cover of the bulwarks, 
and when next I looked out they had disappeared 
from the spit, and the spit itself had almost melted 
out of sight in the growing distance. That was, at 
least, the end of that ; and before noon, to my inex- 
nressible joy, the highest rock of Treasure Island 
had sunk into the blue round of sea. 

We Avere so short of men that every one on board 
had to bear a hand — only the captain lying on a 
mattress in the stern and giving his orders; for, 
though greatly recovered, he was still in want of 
quiet. We laid her head for the nearest port in 
Spanish America, for we could not risk the voyage 
home Avithout fresh hands ; and as it was, what Avith 
baffling winds and a couple of fresh gales, we Avere 
all worn out before we reached it. 


286 


TMEA8UBE 18LAN1> 


It was just at sundown when we oast anchor m a 
most beautiful landlocked gulf, and were immedi- 
ately surrounded by shore boats full of negroes, and 
Mexican Indians, and half-bloods, selling fruits and 
vegetables, and offering to dive for bits of money. 
The sight of so many good-humored faces (especially 
the blacks), the taste of the tropical fruits, and 
above all, the lights that began to shine in the 
town, made a most charming contrast to our dark 
and bloody sojourn on the island ; and the doctor 
and the squire, taking me along with them, went 
ashore to pass the early part of the night. Here 
they met the captain of an English man-of-war, fell 
in talk with him, went on board his ship, and, in 
short, had so agreeable a time that day was break- 
ing when we came alongside the Hispaniola. 

Ben Gunn was on deck alone, and, as soon as we 
came on board, he began, with wonderful contor- 
tions, to make us a confession. Silver was gone. 
The maroon had connived at his escape in a shore 
boat^some hours ago, and he now assured us he had 
only done so to preserve our lives, which would cer*> 
tainly have been forfeit if “ that man with the one 
leg had stayed aboard.” But this was not all. The 
sea cook had not gone empty-handed. He had cut 
through a bulkhead unobserved, and had removed 
one of the sacks of coin, worth, perhaps, three or 
four hundred guineas, to help him on his further 
wanderings. 

I think we were all pleased to be so cheaply quit 
of him. 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


287 


Well, to make a long story short, we got a few 
hands on board, made a good cruise home, and the 
Hispaniola reached Bristol just as Mr. Blandly was 
beginning to think of fitting out her consort. Five 
men only of those who had sailed returned with her. 
“ Drink and the devil had done for the rest,” with a 
vengeance ; although, to be sure, we were not quite 
in so bad a case as that other ship they sang about : 

“ With one man of her crew alive, 

What put to sea with seventy-five.” 

All of us had an ample share of the treasure, and 
used it wisely or foolishly, according to our natures. 
Captain Smollett is now retired from the sea. Gray 
not only saved his money, but, being suddenly smit 
with the desire to rise, also studied his profession ; 
and he is now mate ana part owner of a fine full- 
rigged ship; married besides, and the father of a 
family. As for Ben Gunn, he got a thousand pounds, 
which he spent or lost in three weeks, or, to be more 
exact, in nineteen days, for he was back begging on 
the twentieth. Then he was given a lodge to keep, 
exactly as he had feared upon the island ; and he 
still lives, a great favorite, though something of a 
butt, with the country boys, and a notable singer in 
church on Sundays and saints’ days. 

Of Silver we have heard no more. That formid- 
able seafaring man with one leg has at last gone 
clean out of my life ; but I dare say he met his old 
negress, and perhaps still lives in comfort with her 
and Captain Flint. It is to be hoped so, I suppose. 


288 


TREASURE ISLAND. 


for his chances for comfort in another world are 
very small. 

The bar silver and the arms still lie, for all that I 
know, where Flint buried them ; and certainly they 
shall lie there for me. Oxen and wain-ropes would 
not bring me back again to that accursed island ; 
and the worst dreams that ever I have are when I 
hear the surf booming about its coasts, or start up- 
right in bed, with the sharp voice of Captain Flint 
still ringing in my ears : “ Pieces of eight ! pieces 
of eight !’’ 


THE MERRY MEN 




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THE MERRY MEN 


CHAPTER I. 

EILEAN AEOS. 

It was a I)eautiful morning in the late July when 
I set forth on foot for the last time for Aros. A 
boat had put me ashore the night before at Grisa- 
pol ; I had such breakfast as the little inn afforded, 
and, leaving all my baggage till I had an occasion to 
come round for it by sea, struck right across the 
promontory with a cheerful heart. 

I was far from being a native of these parts, 
springing, as I did, from an unmixed lowland stock. 
But an uncle of mine, Gordon Darnaway, after a 
poor, rough youth, and some years at sea, had mar- 
ried a young wife in the islands; Mary Maclean 
she was called, the last of her family ; and when 
she died in giving birth to a daughter, Aros, the 
seagirt farm, had remained in his possession. It 
brought him in nothing but the means of life, as I 
was well aware ; but he was a man whom ill-fortune 
had pursued ; he feared, encumbered as he was with 
the young child, to make a fresh adventure upon 
life ; and remained in Aros, biting his nails at 
destiny. Years passed over his head in that isola- 


292 


TEE MERRY MEN. 


tion, and brought neither help nor contentment. 
Meantime our family was dying out in the low- 
lands ; there is little luck for any of that race ; and 
perhaps my father was the luckiest of all, for not 
only was he one of the last to die, but he left a son 
to his name and a little money to support it. I was 
a student of Edinburgh University, living well 
enough at my own charges, but without kith or kin ; 
when some news of me found its way to Uncle Gor- 
don on the Koss of Grisapol ; and he, as he was a 
man who held blood thicker than water, wrote to 
me the day he heard of my existence, and taught 
me to count Aros as my home. Thus it was that I 
came to spend my vacations in that part of the 
country, so far from ail society and comfort, be- 
tween the codfish and the moor-cooks ; and thus it 
was that now, when I had done with my classes, I 
was returning thither with so light a heart that 
July day. 

The Koss, as we call it, is a promontory neither 
wide nor high, but as rough as God made it to this 
da}^ ; the deep sea on either hand of it, full of 
rugged isles and reefs most perilous to seamen — all 
overlooked from the eastward by some very high 
cliffs and the great peak of Ben Kyaw. “The 
Mountain of the Mist,” they say the words signify 
in the Gaelic tongue ; and it is well named. For 
that hilltop, which is more than three thousand feet 
in height, catches all the clouds that come blowing 
from the seaward ; and, indeed, I used often to 
think thai it must make them for itself ; since when 


THE MEURT MEN. 


293 


all heaven was clear to the sea level, there would 
ever be a streamer on Ben Kyaw. It brought 
water, too, and was mossy* to the top in con 
sequence. I have seen us sitting in broad sun- 
shine on the Boss, and the rain falling black like 
crape upon the mountain. But the wetness of it 
made it often appear more beautiful to my eyes ; 
for when the sun struck upon the hillsides, there 
were many wet rocks and water-courses that shone 
lake jewels, even as far as Aros, fifteen miles away. 

The road that 1 followed was a cattle-track. It 
twisted so as nearly to double the length of my 
journey ; it went over rough bowlders so that a 
man had to leap from one to another, and through 
soft bottoms where the moss came nearly to the 
knee. There was no cultivation anywhere, and not 
one house in the ten miles from Grisapol to Aros. 
Houses of course there were — three at least ; but 
they lay so far on the one side or the other that no 
stranger could have found them from the track. A 
large part of the Boss is covered with big granite 
rocks, some of them larger than a two-roomed 
house, one beside another, with fern and deep 
heather in between them where the vipers breed. 
Any way the wind was, it was always sea air, as 
salt as on a ship ; the gulls were as free as moor- 
fowl over all the Boss ; and whenever the way rose 
a little, your eye would kindle with the brightness 
of the sea. From the very midst of the lanrl, on a 
day of wind and a high spring, I have heard the 


♦Boggy. 


294 


TEE MERE 7 MEN. 


Koost roaring like a battle where it runs by Arcs, 
and the great and fearful voices of the breakers that 
we call the “ Merry Men.” 

Aros itself — Aros Jay, I have heard the natives 
call it, and they say it means “ The House of God ” 
— Aros itself was not properly a piece of the "Ross, 
nor was it quite an islet. It formed the southwest 
corner of the land, fitted close by it, and was in one 
place only s^arated from the coast by a little gut 
of the sea, not forty feet across the narrowest. 
When the tide was full, this was clear and still, like 
a pool on a land river ; only there was a difference 
in the weeds and fishes, and the water itself was 
green instead of brown ; but when the tide went 
out, in the bottom of the ebb, there was a day or 
two in everjT- month when you could pass dryshod 
from Aros to the mainland. There was some good 
pasture, where my uncle fed the sheep he lived on ; 
perhaps the feed was better because the ground rose 
higher on the islet than the main level of the Ross, 
but this I am not skilled enough to settle. The 
house was a good one for that country, two stories 
high. It looked westward over a bay, with a pier 
hard by for a boat, and from the door you could 
watch the vapors blowing on Ben Kyaw. 

On all this part of the coast, and especially near 
Aros, these j great granite rocks that I have spoken 
of "go down together in troops into the sea, like cattle 
on a summer’s day. There they stand, for all the 
world like their neighbors ashore ; only the salt 
water sobbing between them instead of the quiet 


THE METtUY MEN. 


295 


earth, and clots of sea-pink blooming on their sides 
instead of heather; and the great sea conger to 
wreathe about the base of them instead of the 
poisonous viper of the land. On calm days you can 
go wandering between them in a boat for hours, 
echoes following you about the labyrinth ; but when 
the sea is up. Heaven help the man that hears that 
caldron boiling. 

Off the southwest end of Aros these rocks are 
very many, and much greater in size. Indeed, they 
must grow monstrously bigger out to sea, for there 
must be ten sea miles of open water sown with them 
as thick as a country place with houses, some stand- 
ing thirty feet above the tides, some covered, but 
all perilous to ships ; so that on a clear, westerly 
blowing day, I have counted, from the top of Aros, 
the great rollers breaking white and heavy over as 
many as six-and-forty buried reefs. But it is nearer 
inshore that the danger is worst ; for the tide, here 
running like a mill-race, makes a long belt of broken 
water — a Roost we call it — at the tail of the land. 
1 have often been out there in a dead calm at the 
slack of the tide ; and a strange place it is, with the 
sea swirling and combing up and boiling like the 
caldrons of a linn, and now and again a little dancing 
mutter of sound as though the Roost were talking 
to itself. But when the tide begins to run again, 
and above all in heavy weather, there is no man 
could take a boat within half a mile of it, nor a ship 
afloat that could either steer or live in such a place. 
You can hear the roaring of it six miles awa3^ At 


296 


THE MEBRY MEN. 


the seaward end there comes the strongest of the 
bubble ; and it’s here that these big breaaers dance 
together — the dance of death, it may be called— 
that have got the name, in these parts, of the Merry 
Men. I have heard it said that they run fifty feet 
high ; but that must be the green water only, for 
the spray runs twice as high as that. Whether they 
got the name from their movements, which are swift 
and antic, or from the shouting they make about the 
turn of the tide, so that all Aros shakes with it, is 
more than I can tell. 

The truth is, that in a southwesterly wind, that 
part of our archipelago is no better than a trap. 
If a ship got through the reefs, and weathered the 
Merry Men, it would be to come ashore on the 
south coast of Aros, in Sandag Bay, where so many 
dismal things befell our family, as I propose to tell. 
The thought of all these dangers, in the place I 
knew so long, makes me particularly welcome the 
works now going forward to set lights upon the 
headlands and buoys along the channels of our 
iron-bound, inhospitable islands. 

The country people had many a story about Aros, 
as I used to hear from my uncle’s man, Rorie, an 
old servant of the Macleans, who had transferred 
his services without afterthought on the occasion 
of the marriage. There was some tale of an unlucky 
creature, a sea-kelpie, that dwelt and did business 
in some fearful manner of his own among the 
boiling breakers of the Roost. A mermaid had 
once met a piper on Sandag beach, and there sung 


THE MERRY MEN, 


297 


to him a long, bright midsummer’s night, so that in 
the morning he was found stricken crazy, and from 
thenceforward, till the day he died, said only one 
form of words ; what they were in the original 
Gaelic I cannot tell, but they were thus translated: 
“ Ah, the sweet singing out of the sea.” Seals that 
haunted on that coast have been known to speak 
to man in his own tongue, presaging great disasters. 
It was here that a certain saint first landed on his 
voyage out of Ireland to conv'ert the Hebrideans. 
And, indeed, I think he had some claim to be called 
saint ; for, with the boats of that past age, to make 
so rough a passage, and land on such a ticklish 
coast, was surely not far short of the miraculous. 
It was to him, or to some of his monkish underlings 
who had a cell there, that the islet owes its holy and 
beautiful name, the House of God. 

Among these old wives’ stories there was one 
which 1 was inclined to hear with more credulity. 
As I was told, in that tempest which scattered the 
^hips of the Invincible Armada over all the north 
and west of Scotland, one great vessel came ashore 
on Aros, and before the eyes of some solitary people 
on a hilltop, went down in a moment with all hands, 
her colors flying even as she sunk. There was 
some likelihood in this tale; for another of that 
fleet lay sunk on the north side, twenty miles from 
Grisapol. It was told, I thought, with more detail 
and gravity than its companion stories, and there 
was one particularity which went far to convince 
me of its truth : the name, that is, of the ship was 


298 


THE MERRY MEN. 


still remembered, and sounded in my ears Spanishly 
The “ Espirito Santo ” they called it, a great ship 
of many decks of guns, laden with treasure and 
grandees of Spain, and fierce soldadoes, that now 
lay fathoms deep to all eternity, done with her wars 
and voyages, in Sandag Bay, upon the west of Aros. 
JS’o more salvos of ordnance for that tall ship the 
“ Holy Spirit,” no more fair winds or happy ven- 
tures ; only to rot there deep in the sea-tangle and 
hear the shoutings of the Merry Men as the tide 
ran high about the island. It was a strange 
thought to me first and last, and only grew stranger 
as I learned the more of the way in which she had 
set sail with so proud a company, and King Philip, 
the wealthy king, that sent her on that voyage. 

And now I must tell you, as I walked from 
Grisapol that day, the Espirito Santo was very 
much in m3’' refiections. I had been favorably re- 
marked by our then principal in Edinburgh College, 
that famous writer. Dr. Kobertson, and by him had 
been set to work on some papers of an ancient date 
‘to rearrange and sift out what was worthless; and 
^in one of these, to my great wonder, I found a 
note of this very ship, the Espirito Santo, with 
her captain’s name, and how she carried a great 
part of the Spaniard’s treasure, and had been lost 
upon the Boss of Grisapol ; but in what particular 
spot, the wild tribes of that place and period would 
give no information to the king’s inquiries. Putting 
one thing with another, and taking our island 
tradition together with this note of old King Jamie’s 


THE MERRY MEN. 


299 


perquisitions after wealth, it had come strongly on 
my mind that the spot for which he sought in vain 
could be no other than the small Bay of Sandag on 
my uncle’s land ; and being a fellow of a mechanical 
lurn^ I had ever since been plotting how to weigh 
that good ship up again with all her ingots, ounces, 
and doubloons, and bring back our house of Darna- 
way to its long-forgotten dignity and wealth. 

This was a design of which I soon had reason to 
repent. My mind was sharply turned on different 
reflections ; and since I became the witness of a 
strange judgment of God’s, the thought of dead 
men’s treasures has been intolerable to my con- 
science. But even at that time I must acquit my- 
self of sordid greed ; for if I desired riches, it was 
not for their own sake, but for the sake of a person 
who was dear to my heart — my uncle’s daughter, 
Mary Ellen. She had been educated well, and had 
been a time to school upon the mainland; which 
poor girl, she would have been happier without. 
For Aros was no place for her, with old Eorie the 
servant, and her father, who was one of the un- 
happiest men in Scotland, plainly bred up in a 
country place among Cameronians, long a skipper 
sailing out of the Clyde about the islands, and now, 
with infinite discontent, managing his sheep and a 
little ’longshore fishing for the necessary bread. If 
it was sometimes weariful to me, who was there but 
a month or two, you may fancy what it was to her 
who dwelt in that same desert all the year round, 
with the sheep and flying sea-gulls, and the Merry 
Men singing ancj^dancmg in the Roost I 


aoo 


THE MERRY MEN. 


CHAPTER II. 

WHAT THE WRECK HAD BROUGHT TO AR08. 

It was half -flood when I got the length of Aros ; 
and there was nothing for it but to stand on the far 
shore and whistle for Rorie with the boat. I had 
no need to repeat the signal. At the first sound, 
Mary was at the door flying a handkerchief by way 
of answer, and the old long-legged serving-man was 
shambling down the gravel to the pier. For all his 
hurry, it took him a long while to pull across the 
bay ; and I observed him several times to pause, go 
into the stern, and look over curiously into the wake. 
As he came nearer, he seemed to me aged and hag- 
gard, and I thought he avoided my eye. The coble 
had been repaired, with two new thwarts and sev- 
eral patches of some rare and beautiful foreign 
wood, the name of it unknown to me. 

“Why Rorie,” said I, as we began the return 
voyage, “this is fine wood. How came you by 
tha4;?” 

“ It will be hard to cheesel,” Rorie opined reluc- 
tantly ; and just then, dropping the oars, he made 
another of those dives into the stern which I had 
remarked as he came across to fetch me, and, lean- 


TEE MERRY MEN. 


301 


ing his hand on my shoulder, stared with an awful 
look into the waters of the bay. 

What is wrong?” I asked, a good deal startled. 

“ It will be a great feesh,” said the old man, re- 
turning to his oars ; and nothing more could I get 
out of him, but strange glances and an ominous nod- 
ding of the head. In spite of myself, I was infected 
with a measure of uneasiness ; I turned also, and 
studied the wake. The water was still and trans- 
parent, but out here in the middle of the bay ex- 
ceeding deep. For some time I could see naught ; 
but at last it did seem to me as if something dark — 
a great fish, or perhaps only a shadow — followed 
studiously in the track of the moving coble. And 
then I remembered one of Eorie’s superstitions: 
how in a ferry in Morven, in some great, extermi- 
nating feud among the clans, a fish, the like of it 
unknown in all our waters, followed for some years 
the passage of the ferry-boat, until no man dared to 
make the crossing. 

“ He will be waiting for the right man,” said 
Eorie. 

Mary met me on the beach, and led me up the 
brae and into the house of Aros. Outside and 
inside there were many changes. The garden was 
fenced with the same wood that I had noted in the 
boat; there were chairs in the kitchen covered with 
strange brocade ; curtains of brocade hung from the 
window ; a clock stood silent on the dresser ; a lamp 
of brass was swinging from the roof ; the table was 
set for dinner with the finest of linen and silver ; 


302 


THE MERRY MEN. 


and all Uiese new riches were displayed in the plain 
old kitchen that I knew so well, with the high- 
backed settle, and the stools, and the closet bed for 
Eorie ; with the wide chimney the sun shone into, 
and the clear-smoldering peats ; with the pipes on 
the mantel-shelf and the three-cornered spittoons, 
filled with sea-shells instead of sand, on the floor ; 
with the bare stone walls and the bare wooden floor, 
and the three patchwork rugs that were of yore its 
sole adornment — poor man’s patchwork, the like of 
it unknown in cities, woven with homespun and Sun- 
day black, and sea-cloth polished on the bench of 
rowing. The room, like the house, had been a sort 
of wonder in the country side, it was so neat and 
habitable ; and to see it now, shamed by these im 
congruous additions, filled me with indignation and 
a kind of anger. In view of the errand I had come 
upon to Aros, the feeling was baseless and unjust ; 
but it burned high, at the first moment, in my heart. 

“ Mary, girl,” said I, “ this is the place I had 
learned to call my home, and I do not know it.” 

“ It is my home by nature, not by the learning,” 
she replied ; “the place I was born and the place 
I’m like to die in ; and I neither like these changes, 
nor the way they came, nor that which came with 
them. I would have liked better, under God’s pleas' 
ure, they had gone down into the sea, and the Merry 
Men were dancing on them now.” 

Mary was always serious ; it was perhaps the only 
^rait that she shared with her father ; but the tone 
with which she uttered these words was even graver 
than of custom 


THE MERRY MEN. 


303 


said I, I feared it came bj wreck, and 
that’s by death; yet when my father died, I took 
his goods without remorse.” 

Your father died a clean strae death, as the folk 
say,” said Mary. 

True,” I returned ; and a wreck is like a judg- 
ment. What was she called ? ” 

They ca’d her the Christ- Anna,” said a voice 
behind me; and, turning round, I saw my uncle 
standing in the doorway. 

He was a sour, small, bilious man, with a long 
face and very dark eyes; fifty-six years old, sound 
and active in body, and with an air somewhat be- 
tween that of a shepherd and that of a man follow- 
ing the sea. He never laughed, that I heard; read 
long at the Bible; prayed much, like the Cameron- 
ians he had been brought up among; and, indeed, 
in many ways, used to remind me of one of the hill- 
preachers in the killing times before the Bevolution. 
But he never got much comfort, nor even, as I used 
to think, much guidance, by his piety. He had his 
black fits when he was afraid of hell; but he had 
led a rough life, to which he would look back with 
envy, and was still a rough, cold, gloomy man. 

As he came in at the door out of the sunlight, 
with his bonnet on his head and a pipe hanging in 
his buttonhole, he seemed, like Rorie, to have grown 
older and paler, the lines were deeplier plowed upon 
his face, and the whites of his eyes were yellow, like 
old stained ivory, or the bones of the dead. 

^^Ay,” he repeated, dwelling upon the first part 


304 


TEE MERRY MEN. 


of the word, “the Christ- Anna. It’s an awfu’ 
name.” 

1 made him my salutations, and complimented 
him upon his look of health ; for I feared he had 
perhaps heen ill. 

“I’m in the body,” he replied, ungraciously 
enough ; “ ay, in the body and the sins of the body, 
like yoursel’. Benner,” he said abruptly to Mary, 
and then ran on to me : “ They’re grand braws, thir 
that we hae gotten, are they no? Yon’s a bonny 
knock,* but it’ll no gang; and the napery’s by 
ordnar. Bonny, bairrily braws ; it’s for the like o’ 
them folks sells the peace of God that passeth un- 
derstanding ; it’s for the like o’ them, an’ may be 
no even sae rauckle worth, folk daunt-on God to 
His face and burn in muckle hell ; and it’s for that 
reason the scripture ca’s them, as I read the pas- 
sage, the accursed thing. Mary, ye girzie,” he 
interrupted himself to cry with some asperity, 
“ what for hae ye no put out the twa candle- 
sticks ?” 

“ Why should we need them at high noon ?” she 
asked. 

But my uncle was not to be turned from his idea. 

“We’ll bruikf them while we may,” he said ; and 
so two massive candlesticks of wrought silver were 
added to the table equipage, already so unsuited to 
that rough seaside farm. 

“ She cam’ ashore Februar’ 10, about ten at 


* Clock. 


t Enjoy, 


TEE MERRY MEN. 


3U5 


aicht,” he went on to me. ‘‘ There was nae wind, 
and a sair run o’ sea ; and she was in the sook o’ the 
Roost, as I jaloose. We had seen her a’ day, Rorie 
and me, beating to the wind. She wasnae a handy 
craft, I’m thinking, that Christ-Anna ;’ for she 
would neither steer nor stey wi’ them. A sair day 
they had of it ; their hands was never aff the sheets, 
and it perishin’ cauld — ower cauld to snaw ; and aye 
they would get a bit nip o’ wind, and awa’ again, to 
pit the emp’y hope into them. Eh, man ! but they 
had a sair day for the last o’t ! He would have had 
a prood, prood heart that won ashore upon the back 
o’ that.” 

“ And were all lost ?” I cried. “ God help them !” 

‘‘ Wheesht !” he said sternly. “ Hane shall pray 
for the deid on my hearthstane.” 

I disclaimed a popish sense for my ejaculation ; 
and he seemed to accept my disclaimer with unusual 
facility, and ran on once more upon what had 
evidently become a favorite subject. 

“We fand her in Sandag Bay, Rorie an’ me, and 
a’ thae braws in the inside of her. There’s a kittle 
bit, ye see, about Sandag; whiles the sook rins 
strong for the Merry Men ; an’ whiles again, when 
the tide’s makin’ hard an’ ye can hear the Roost 
blawin’ at the far end of Aros, there comes a back- 
spang of current straucht into Sandag Bay. Weel, 
there’s the thing that got the grip on the Christ- 
Anna. She but to have come in ramstam an’ stern 
forrit ; for the bows of her are aften under, and the 
back-side of her is clear at hie- water o’ neaps. But, 


306 


TEE MERRY MEN. 


man ! the dunt that she cam doon wi’ when she 
struck ! Lord save us a’ ! but it’s an unco life to be 
a sailor — a cauld, wanchancy life. Mony’s the gliff 
I got myseP in the great deep ; and why the Lord 
should hae made yon unco water is mair than ever 
I could win to understand. He made the vales and 
the pastures, the bonny green yaird, the halesome, 
canty land : 

“ ‘And now they shout and sing to Thee, 

For Thou hast made them glad,’ 

as the Psalms say in the metrical version. Ho that 
I would preen my faith to that clink neither ; but 
it’s bonny, and easier to mind. ‘ Who go to sea in 
ships,’ they hae’t again : 

“ ‘ And in 

Great waters trading be, 

"Within the deep these men God’s works 
And His great wonders see.’ 

Weel, it’s easy sayin’ sae. Maybe Dauvit wasnae 
very weel acquant wi’ the sea. But troth, if it 
wasnae prentit in the Bible, I wad whiles be temp’it 
to think it wasnae the Lord, but the muckle, black 
deil that made the sea. There’s naething good 
comes oot o’t but the fish ; an’ the spentacle o’ God 
riding on the tempest, to be shure, whilk would be 
what Dauvit was likely ettling at. But, man, they 
were sair wonders that God showed to the Christ- 
Anna — wonders, do I ca’ them? Judgments, 


THE MERRY MEN. 


307 


rather: judgments in the mirk nicht among the 
draygons o’ the deep. And their souls — to think o’ 
that — their souls, man, may be no prepared ! The 
sea — a muckle yett to hell !” 

I observed, as my uncle spoke, that his voice was 
unnaturally moved and his manner unwontedly 
demonstrative. He leaned forward at these last 
words, for example, and touched me on the knee 
with his spread fingers, looking up into my face with 
a certain pallor, and I could see that his eyes shone 
with a deep-seated fire, and that the lines about his 
mouth were drawn and tremulous. 

Even the entrance of Korie, and the beginning of 
our meal, did not detach him from his train of 
thought beyond a moment. He condescended, 
indeed, to ask me some questions as to my success 
at college, but I thought it was with half his mind ; 
and even in his extempore grace, which was, as 
usual, long and wandering, I could find the trace of 
his preoccupation, praying, as he did, that God 
would “ remember in mercy fower puir, feckless, 
fiddling, sinful creatures here by their lee-lane 
beside the great and dowie waters.” 

Soon there came an interchange of speeches be- 
tween him and Korie. 

Was it there ?” asked my uncle. 

“ Ou, ay !” said Korie. 

I observed that they both spoke in a manner of 
aside, and with some show of embarrassment, and 
that Mary herself appeared to color, and looked 
down on'her plate. Partly to show my knowledge, 


308 


TH E MERRY MEN. 


and so relieve the party from an awkward strain, 
partly because I was curious, I pursued the subject. 

“ You mean the fish I asked. 

“ Wkatten fish cried my uncle. “ Fish, quo’ 
he! Fish ! Your een are fu’ o’ fatness, man ; your 
heid dozened wi’ carnal leir. Fish ! it’s a bogle !” 

He spoke with great vehemence, as though angry ; 
and perhaps I was not willing to be put down so 
shortly, for young men are disputatious. At least 
I remember I retorted hotly, crying out upon child- 
ish superstitions. 

“ And ye come frae the college !” sneered Uncle 
Gordon. “ Gude kens what they learn folk there ; 
it’s no muckle service ony way. Do ye think, man, 
that there’s naething in a’ yon saut wilderness o’ a 
world oot wast there, wi’ the sea grasses growin’, 
an’ the sea beasts fechtin’, an’ the sun glintin’ down 
into it, day by day ? Na ; the sea’s like the land, 
but fearsomer. If there’s folk ashore, there’s folk 
in the sea — deid they may be, but they’re folk what- 
ever ; and as for deils, there’s nane that’s like th© 
sea deils. There’s no sae muckle harm in the land 
deils, when a’s said and done. Lang syne, when I 
w^as a callant in the south country, I mind there was 
an auld, bald bogle in the Peewie Moss. I got a 
glisk o’ him mysel’, sittin’ on his hunkers in a hag, 
as gray’s a tombstane. An’, troth, he was a fear- 
some-like taed. But he steered naebody. Hae 
doobt, if ane that was a reprobate, ane the Lord 
hated, had gane by there wi’ his sin still upon his 
stomach, nae doobt the creature would hae lowped 


THE MERRY MEN. 


upo’ the likes o’ him. But there’s deils in the deep 
sea would yoke on a communicant ! Eh, sirs, if ye 
had gane doon wi’ the puir lads in the Christ- Anna, 
ye would ken by now the mercy o’ the seas. If ye 
had sailed it for as lang as me, ye would hate the 
thocht of it as I do. If ye had but used the een 
God gave ye, ye would hae learned the wickedness 
o’ that fause, saut, cauld, bullering creature, and of 
a’ that’s in it by the Lord’s permission: labsters 
an’ partans, an’ sic like, howking in the deid; 
muckle, gutsy, blawing whales ; an’ fish — the hale 
clan o’ them — cauld-wamed, blind-eed uncanny 
ferJies. Oh, sirs,” he cried, “ the horror — the horror 
o’ the sea 

We were all somewhat staggered by this out- 
burst ; and the speaker himself, after that last hoarse 
apostrophe, appeared to sink gloomily into his own 
thoughts. But Eorie, who was greedy of supersti- 
tious lore, recalled him to the subject by a question. 

“ You will not ever have seen a teevil of the sea?” 
he asked. 

“ JS'o clearly,” replied the other, “ I misdoobt if 
a mere man could see ane clearly and conteenue in 
the body. I hae sailed wi’ a lad — they ca’d him 
Sandy Gabart ; he saw ane, shure eneuch, an’ shure 
eneuch it ^vas the end of him. We were seeven 
day? oot frae the Clyde — a sair wark we had had — 
gaun north wi’ seeds an’ braws an’ things for the 
Macleod. We had got in ower near under the Cut- 
chuU’ns, an’ had just gane about by Soa, an’ were 
off on a lang tack, we thocht would may be hauld as 


^10 


THE HERB 7 MEN, 


far’s Copnahow. I mind the nicht weel ; a mune 
smoored wi’ mist ; a fine gaun breeze upon the water, 
but no steedy ; an’ — what nane o’ us likit to hear — 
anither wund gurlin’ owerheicl, amang thae fear- 
some, auld stane craigs o’ the Cutchull’ns. Weel, 
Sandy was forrit wi’ the jib sheet ; we couldnae see 
him for the mains’l, that had just begude to draw, 
when a’ at ance he gied a skirl. I luffed for my 
life, for I thocht we were ower near Soa ; but na, it 
wasnae that, it was puir Sandy Gabart’s deid 
skreigh, or near hand, for he was deid in half an 
hour. A’t he could tell was that a sea deil, or sea 
bogle, or sea spenster, or sic-like, had clum up by 
the bowsprit, an’ gi’en him ae cauld, uncanny look. 
An’, or the life was oot o’ Sandy’s body, we kent 
weel what the thing betokened, and why the wund 
gurled in the taps o’ the Cutchull’ns ; for doon it 
cam’ — a wund do I ca’ it ! it was the wund o’ the 
Lord’s anger — an’ a’ that nicht we foucht like men 
dementit, and the niest that we kenned we ashore 
in Loch Uskevagh, an’ the cocks were era win’ in 
Benbecula.” 

“ It will have been a merman,” Korie said. 

“ A merman !” screamed my uncle, with immeas- 
urable scorn. “ Auld wives’ clavers ! There’s nae 
sic things as mermen.” 

“ But what was the creature like ?” I asked. 

“ What like was it ? Gude forbid that we suld 
ken what like it was ! It had a kind of a heid upon 
it — man could say nae mair.” 

Then Korie, smarting under the affront, told sev- 


THE MERRY MEN. 


311 


<5ral tales of mermen, mermaids, and sea-horses that 
had come ashore upon the islands and attacked the 
crews of boats upon the sea ; and my uncle, in spite 
of his incredulity, listened with uneasy interest. 

“ Aweel, aweel,” he said, “ it may be sae ; I may 
be wrang ; but I find nae word o’ mermen in the 
scriptures.” 

“ And you ^vill find nae word of Aros Eoost, may 
be,” objected Korie, and his argument appeared to 
carry weight. 

When dinner was over, my uncle carried me forth 
with him to a bank behind the house. It was a 
very hot and quiet afternoon ; scarce a ripple any- 
where upon the sea, nor any voice but the familiar 
voice of sheep and gulls ; and perhaps in conse- 
quence of this repose in nature my kinsman showed 
himself more rational and tranquil than before. He 
spoke evenly and almost cheerfully of my career, 
with every now and then a reference to the lost 
ship or the treasures it had brought to Aros. For 
my part, I listened to him in a sort of trance, gazing 
with all my heart on that remembered scene, and 
drinldng gladly the sea air and the smoke of peats 
that had been lit by Mary. 

Perhaps an hour had passed when my uncle, who- 
had all the while been covertly gazing on the sur- 
face of the little bay, rose to his feet and bade me 
follow his example. How I should say that the 
great run of tide at the southwest end of Aros exer- 
cises a perturbing influence round all the coast. In 
Sandag Bay, to the south, a strong current runs at 


312 


THE MERRY MEN. 


certain periods of the flood and ebb respectively ; 
but in this northern bay — Aros Bay, as it is called 
— where the house stands and on which my uncle 
was now gazing, the only sign of disturbance is 
toward the end of the ebb, and even then it is too 
slight to be remarkable. When there is any swell, 
nothing can be seen at all ; but when it is calm, as 
it often is, there appear certain strange, undecipher- 
iible marks — sea-runes, as we may name them — on 
the glassy surface of the bay. The like is common 
in a thousand places on the coast ; and many a boy 
must have amused himself as I did, seeking to read 
in them some reference to himself or those he loved. 
It was to these marks that my uncle now directed 
my attention, struggling as he did so, with an evi- 
dent reluctance. 

“ Do ye see yon scart upo’ the water he in- 
quired; “yon ane wast the gray stane? Ay? 
Weel, it’ll no be like a letter, wull it ?” 

“ Certainly it is,” I replied. “ I have often re- 
marked it. It is like a C.” 

He heaved a sigh as if heavily disappointed with 
my answer, and then added below his breath : “ Ay, 
for the Christ- Anna.” 

“ I used to suppose, sir, it was for myself,” said 
I ; “ for my name is Charles.” 

“ And so ye saw’t afore ?” he ran on, not heeding 
my remark. “Weel, weel, but that’s unco strange. 
May be, it’s been there waitin’, as a man wad say, 
through a’ the weary ages. Man, but that’s awfu’.” 
And then, breaking off : “ Ye’ll no see anither, will 
je ?” he asked. 


THE MERRY MRH» 


313 


“Yes,” said I. “ I see another very plainly, near 
the Boss side, where the road comes down — an M.” 

“ An M,” he repeated, very low ; and then again 
after another pause : “ An’ what wad ye make o’ 
that?” he inquired. 

“ I had always thought it to mean Mary, sir,” I 
answered, growing somewhat red, convinced as I 
was in my own mind that I was on the threshold 
of a decisive explanation. 

But we were each following his own train of 
thought to the exclusion of the other’s. My uncle 
once more paid no attention to my words; only 
hung his head and held his peace ; and I might 
have been led to fanc}^ that he had not heard me, 
if his next speech had not contained a kind of echo 
from my own. 

“ I would say naething o’ thae clavers to Mary,” 
he observed, and began to walk forward. 

There is a belt of turf along the side of Aros Bay 
where walking is easy ; and it was along this that 
I silently followed my silent kinsman. I was 
perhaps a little disappointed at having lost so good 
an opportunity to declare my love ; but I was at 
the same time far more deeply exercised at the 
change that had befallen my uncle. He was never 
an ordinary, never, in the strict sense, an amiable, 
man ; but there was nothing in even the worst that 
I had known of him before, to prepare me for so 
strange a transformation. It was impossible to 
close the eyes against one fact ; that he had, as the 
saying goes, something on his mind ; and as I 


THE MERRY MEN. 


314 

mentally ran over the different words which might 
be represented by the letter M — misery, mercy, 
marriage, money, and the like — I was arrested with 
a sort of start by the word murder. I was still 
considering the ugly sound and fatal meaning of 
the word, when the direction of our walk brought 
us to a point from which a view was to be had to 
either side, back toward Aros Bay and homestead, 
and forward on the ocean, dotted to the north with 
isles, and lying to the southward blue and open to 
the sky. There my guide came to a halt, and stood 
staring for awhile on that expanse. Then he turned 
to me and laid a hand on my arm. 

“ Ye think there’s naething there ?” he said, point- 
ing with his pipe ; and then cried out aloud, with a 
kind of exultation : “ I’ll tell ye, man ! The deid 
^re down there — thick like rattons !” 

He turned at once, and, without another word, 
we retraced our steps to the house of Aros. 

I was eager to be alone with Mary ; yet it was 
not till after supper, and then but for a short while, 
that I could have a word with her. I lost no time 
beating about the bush, but spoke out plainly 
what was on my mind. 

Mary,” I said, “ I have not come to Aros without 
a hope. If that should prove well founded, we may 
all leave and go somewhere else, secure of daily- 
bread and comfort ; secure, perhaps, of something 
far beyond that, which it would seem extravagant 
in me to promise. But there’s a hope that lies 
nearer to my heart than money.” And at that I 


THE MERRY MEN. 


315 


paused. ‘‘ You can guess fine what that is, Mary,’^ 
I said. She looked away from me in silence, and that 
was small encouragement, but I was not to be put 
off. “ All my days I have thought the world of 
;you,” I continued ; “ the time goes on and I think 
always the more of you ; I could not think to be 
happy or hearty in my life without you : you are 
the apple of my eye.” Still she looked away, and 
said never a word ; but I thought I saw that her 
hands shook. “ Mary,” I cried in fear, “ do ye no 
like me ?” 

“ Oh, Charley, man,” she said, “ is this a time to 
speak of it ? Let me be awhile ; let me be the way 
I am ; it’ll not be you that loses by the waiting !” 

I made out by her voice that she was nearly weep- 
ing, and this put me out of any thought but to com- 
pose her. “ Mary Ellen,” I said, “ say no more ; I 
did not come to trouble you : your way shall be 
mine, and your time, too ; and you have told me all 
I wanted. Only just this one thing more : what ails 
you ?” 

She owned it was her father, but would enter into 
no particulars, only shook her head, and said he was 
not well and not like himself, and it was a great 
pity. She knew nothing of the wreck. “ 1 havenae 
been near it,” said she. “ What for would I go near 
it, Charley, lad ? The poor souls are gone to their 
account long syne ; and I would just have wished 
they had ta’en their gear with them — poor souls !” 

This was scarcely any great encouragement for 
me to tell her of the Espirito Santo ; yet I did so,. 


316 


THE MEBBY MEN. 


and at the very first word she cried out in surprise. 
“ There was a man at Grisapol,’’ she said, “ in the 
month of May — a little, yellow, black-a vised body, 
they tell me, with gold rings upon his fingers, and a 
beard ; and he was speiring high and low for that 
same ship.” 

It was toward the end of April that I had been 
given these papers to sort out by Dr. Kobertson : 
and it came suddenly back upon my mind that they 
were thus prepared for a Spanish historian, or a 
man calling himself such, who had come with high 
recommendations to the principal, on a mission of 
inquiry as to the dispersion of the great Armada. 
Putting one thing with another, I fancied that the 
visitor “ with the gold rings upon his fingers ” might 
be the same with Dr. Robertson’s historian from 
Madrid. If that were so, he would be more likely 
after treasure for himself than information for a 
learned society. I made up my mind I should lose 
no time over my undertaking ; and if the ship lay sunk 
in Sandag Bay, as perhaps both he and I supposed, 
it should not be for the advantage of this ringed ad- 
venturer, but for Mary and myself, and for the good, 
old, honest, kindly family of the Darnaways. 


THE MERRY MEN. 


317 


CHAPTER III. 

LAND AND SEA IN SANDAG BAY. 

I WAS early afoot aext morning ; and as soon as I 
had a bite to eat, set forth upon a tour of explora- 
tion. Something in my heart distinctly told me 
that I should find the ship of the Armada ; and al- 
though I did not give way entirely to such hopeful 
thoughts, I was still very light in spirits and walked 
upon air. Aros is a very rough islet, its surface 
strewn with great rocks and shaggy with fern and 
heather ; and m}^ way lay almost north and south 
across the highest knoll ; and though the whole dis- 
tance was inside of two miles, it took more time and 
exertion than four upon a level road. Upon the sum- 
mit I paused. Although not very high — not three 
hundred feet, as I think — it yet out-tops aU the 
neighboring lowlands of the Ross, and commands a 
great view of sea and islands. The sun, which had 
been up some time, was already hot upon my neck ; 
the air was listless and thundery, although purely 
clear; away over the northwest, where the isles lie 
thickliest congregated, some half a dozen small and 
ragged clouds hung together in a covey ; and the 
head of Ben Kyaw wore, not merely a few stream- 


ns 


THE MERRY MEN. 


ers, but a solid hood of vapor. There was a threat 
in the weather. The sea, it is true, was smooth like 
glass : even the Eoost was but a seam on that wide 
mirror, and the Merry Men no more than caps of 
foam ; but to my eye and ear, so long familiar with 
these places, the sea also seemed to lie uneasily ; a 
sound of it, like a long sigh, mounted to me where I 
stood ; and, quiet as it was, the Eoost itself appeared 
to be revolving mischief. For I ought to say that 
all we dwellers in these parts attributed, if not pres- 
cience, at least a qualitj'^ of warning, to that strange 
and dangerous creature of the tides. 

I hurried on, then, with the greater speed, and 
had soon descended the slope of Aros to the part 
that we call Sandag Bay. It is a pretty large piece 
of water compared with the size of the isle ; well 
sheltered from all but the prevailing wind ; sandy 
and shoal and bounded by low sand-hills to the west, 
but to the eastward lying several fathoms deep along 
a ledge of rocks. It is upon that side that, at a cer- 
tain time each flood, the current mentioned by my 
uncle sets so strong into the bay ; a little later, when 
the Eoost begins to work higher, an undertow runs 
still more strongly in the reverse direction ; and it 
is the action of this last, as I suppose, that has 
scoured that part so deep. Nothing is to be seen 
out of Sandag Bay but one small segment of the 
horizon, and, in heavy weather, the breakers fly 
ing high over a deep sea reef. 

From halfway down the hill, I had perceived the 
wreck of February last, a brig of considerable ton- 


THE MERUY MEN, 


319 


nage, lying, with her back broken, high and dry on 
the east corner of the sands ; and I was making 
directly toward it, and already almost on the mar- 
gin of the turf, when my eyes were suddenly 
iarrested by a spot, cleared of fern and heather, and 
marked by one of those long, low, and almost hu- 
man-looking mounds that we see so commonly in 
graveyards. I stopped like a man shot. I^Tothing 
had been said to me of any dead man or interment 
on the island ; Eorie, Mary, and my uncle had all 
equally held their peace ; of her, at least, I was cer- 
tain that she must be ignorant ; and yet here, be- 
fore my eyes, was proof indubitable of the fact. 
Here was a grave ; and I had to ask myself, with a 
chill, what manner of man lay there in his last 
sleep, awaiting the signal of the Lord in that soli- 
tary, sea-beat resting place ? My mind supplied no 
answer but what I feared to entertain. Shipwrecked, 
at least, he must have been ; perhaps, like the old 
Armada mariners, from some far and rich land over- 
sea ; or perhaps one of my own race, perishing with- 
in eyesight of the smoke of home. I stood awhile 
uncovered by his side, and I could have desired that 
it had lain in our religion to put up some prayer for 
that unhappy stranger, or, in the old classic way, 
outwardly to honor his misfortune. I knew, al- 
though his bones lay there, a part of Aros, till the 
trumpet sounded, his imperishable soul was forth 
and far away, among the raptures of the everlast- 
ing Sabbath or the pangs of hell; and yet my mind 
misgave me even with a fear, that perhaps he was 


820 


THE MERRY MEN. 


near me where I stood, guarding his sepulcher, and 
lingering on the scene of his unappy fate. 

Certainly it was with a spirit somewhat over- 
shadowed that I turned away from the grave to 
the hardly less melancholy spectacle of the wreck. 
Her stem was above the first arc of the flood ; she 
was broken in two a little abaft the foremast— 
though indeed she had none, both masts having 
broken short in her disaster ; and as the pitch of the 
beach was very sharp and sudden, and the bows 
lay many feet below the stern, the fracture gaped 
widely open, and ^mu could see right through her 
poor hull upon the further side. Her name was 
much defaced, and I could not make out clearly 
whether she was called Christiania, after the 
Norwegian city, or Christiana, after the good 
woman, Christian’s wife, in that old book tlie 
“ Pilgrim’s Progress.” By her build she was a 
foreign ship, but 1 was not certain of her nationality. 
She had been painted green, but the color was 
faded and weathered, and the paint peeling off in 
strips. The wreck of the mainmast lay alongside, 
half buried in sand. She was a forlorn sight, indeed, 
and I could not look without emotion at the bits of 
rope that still hung about her, so often handled of 
yore by shouting seamen ; or the little scuttle where 
they had passed up and down to their affairs ; or 
that poor noseless angel of a figure-head that had 
dipped into so many running billows. 

I do not know whether it came most from the 
ship or from the grave, but I fell into some 


TEE MERE T ME]^. 321 

melancholy scruples, as I stood there, leaning with 
one hand against the battered timbersc The home* 
lessness of men and even of inanimate vessels, cast 
away upon strange shores, came strongly in upon 
my mind. To make a profit of such pitiful mis- 
adventures seemed an unmanly and a sordid act ; 
and I began to think of my then quest as of 
something sacrilegious in its nature. But when I 
remembered Mary, 1 took heart again. My uncle 
would never consent to an imprudent marriage, nor 
would she, as I was persuaded, wed without his full 
approval. It behooved me, then, to be up and 
doing for my wife; and I thought with a laugh 
how long it was since that great sea-castle the 
Espirito Santo, had left her bones in Sandag Bay, 
and how weak it would be to consider rights so 
long extinguished and misfortunes so long forgotten 
in the process of time. 

I had my theory of where to seek for her re- 
mains. The set of the current and the soundings 
both pointed to the east side of the bay under the 
ledge of rocks. If she had been lost in Sandag 
Bay, and if, after these centuries, any portion of 
her held together, it was there that I should find 
it. The water deepens, as I have said, with great 
rapidity, and even close alongside the rocks several 
fathoms may be found. As I walked upon the edge 
I could see far and wide over the sandy bottom of 
the bay ; the sun shone clear and green and steady 
in the deeps ; the bay seemed rather like a great 
transparent crystal, as one sees them in a lapidary’s 


m 


THE MEURT MEN. 


shop ; there was naught to show that it was water 
but an internal trembling, a hovering within of 
sun-glints and netted shadows, and now and then a 
faint lap and a dying bubble round the edge. The 
shadows of the rocks lay out for some distance at 
their feet, so that my own shadow, moving, pausing, 
and stooping on the top of that, reached sometimes 
half across the bay. It was above all in this belt 
of shadows that I hunted for the Espirito Santo ; 
since it was there the undertow ran strongest, 
whether in or out. Cool as the whole water 
seemed this broiling day, it looked, in that part, yet 
cooler, and had a mysterious invitation for the eyes. 
Peer as I pleased, however, I could see nothing 
but a few fishes or a bush of sea-tangle, and here 
and there a lump of rock that had fallen from 
above and now lay separate on the sandy floor. 
Twice did I pass from one end to the other of the 
rocks, and in the whole distance I could see nothing 
of the wreck, nor any place but one where it was 
possible for it to be. This was a large terrace in 
five fathoms of water, raised off the surface of the 
sand to a considerable height, and looking from 
above like a mere outgrowth of the rocks on which 
I walked. It was one mass of great sea-tangles 
like a grove, which prevented me judging of its 
nature, but in shape and size it bore some likeness 
to a vessel’s hull. At least it was my best chance. 
If the Espirito Santo lay not there under the 
tangles, it lay nowhere at all in Sandag Bay ; and 
I prepared to put the question to the proof, once 


THE MERRY MEN. 


323 


and for all, and either go back to Aros a rich man 
or cured forever of my dreams of wealth. 

I stripped to the skin, and stood on the extreme 
margin with my hands clas])ed, irresolute. The bay 
at that time was utterly quiet ; there was no sound 
but from a school of porpoises somewhere out of 
sight behind the point ; yet a certain fear withheld 
me on the threshold of my venture. Sad sea-feeb 
ings, scraps of my uncle’s superstitions, thoughts of 
the dead, of the grave, of the old broken ships, 
drifted through my mind. But the strong sun upon 
my shoulders warmed me to the heart, and I stooped 
forward and plunged into the sea. 

It was all that I could do to catch a trail of the sea- 
tangle that grew so thickly on the terrace ; but once 
so far anchored I secured myself by grasping a whole 
armful of these thick and slimy stalks, and, planting 
my feet against the edge, I looked around me. On 
all sides the clear sand stretched forth unbroken ; it 
came to the foot of the rocks, scoured into the like- 
ness of an alley in a garden by the action of the 
tides ; and before me, for as far as I could see, noth- 
ing was visible but the same many-folded sand upon 
the sun-bright bottom of the bay. Yet the terrace 
to which I was then holding was as thick with strong 
sea-growths as a tuft of heather, and the cliff from 
which it bulged hung draped below the water-line 
with brown lianas. In this complexity of forms, all 
swaying together in the current, things were hard 
to be distinguished; and I was still uncertain 
whether my feet were pressed upon the natural 


324 


THE MERRY MEN. 


rock or upon the timbers of the Armada treasure* 
ship, when the whole tuft of tangle came away in 
my hand, and in an instant I was on the surface, 
and the shores of the bay and the bright water 
swam before my eyes in a glory of crimson. 

I clambered back upon the rocks, and threw the 
plant of tangle at my feet. Something at the same 
moment rang sharply, like a falling coin. I stooped, 
and there, sure enough, crusted with the red rust, 
there lay an iron shoe-buckle. The sight of this 
poor human relic thrilled me to the heart, but not 
with hope nor fear, only with a desolate melancholy. 
I held it in my hand, and the thought of its owner 
appeared before me like the presence of an actual 
man. His weather-beaten face, his sailor’s hands, 
his sea-voice hoarse with singing at the capstan, the 
very foot that had once worn that buckle and trod 
so much along the swerving decks — the whole 
human fact of him, as a creature like myself, with 
hair and blood and seeing eyes, haunted me in that 
sunny, solitary place, not like a specter, but like 
some friend whom I had basely injured. Was the 
great treasure ship indeed below there, with her 
guns and chain and treasure, as she had sailed from 
Spain; her decks a garden for the seaweed, her 
cabin a breeding-place for fish, soundless but for the 
dredging water, motionless but for the waving of 
the tangle upon her battlements — that old, populous, 
sea-riding castle, now a reef in Sandag Bay ? Or, 
as 1 thought it likelier, was this a waif from the 
disaster of the foreign brig — was this shoe-buckle 


THE ME UR 7 MEN. 


325 


bought but the other day and worn by a man of 
my own period in the world’s history, hearing the 
same news from day to day, thinking the same 
thoughts, praying, perhaps, in the same temple with 
myself? However it was, I was assailed with 
dreary thoughts ; my uncle’s words, “ the dead 
are down there,” echoed in my ears ; and though I 
determined to dive once more, it was with a strong 
repugnance that I stepped forward to the margin of 
the rocks. 

A great change passed at that moment over the 
appearance of the bay. It was no more that clear, 
visible interior, like a house roofed with glass, where 
the green submarine sunshine slept so stilly. A 
breeze, I suppose, had flawed the surface, and a sort* 
of trouble and blackness filled its bosom, where 
flashes of light and clouds of shadow tossed con- 
fusedly together. Even the terrace below obscurely 
rocked and quivered. It seemed a graver thing to 
venture on this place of ambushes; and when I 
leaped into the sea the second time it was with a 
quaking in my soul. 

I secured myself as at first and groped among the 
waving tangle. All that met my touch was cold 
and soft and gluey. The thicket was alive with 
crabs and lobsters, trundling to and fro lopsidedlyc 
and I had to harden my heart against the horror of 
their carrion neighborhood. On all sides I could 
feel the grain and clefts of hard, living stone ; no 
planks, no iron, not a sign of any wreck ; the Espi- 
rito Santo was not there. I remember I had al 


326 


TEE MEBR 7 MEN. 


most a sense of relief in my disappointment, and I 
was about ready to leave go, when something hap 
pened that sent me to the surface with my heart in 
my mouth. 1 had already stayed somewhat late 
over my explorations ; the current was freshening 
with the change of the tide, and Sandag Bay was 
no longer a safe place for a single swimmer. Well, 
just at the last moment there came a sudden flush of 
current, dredging through the tangles like a wave. 
I lost one hold, was flung sprawling on my side, and, 
instinctively grasping for a fresh support, my fingers 
closed on something hard and cold. I think I knew 
at that moment what it was. At least I instantly 
left hold of the tangle, leaped for the surface, and 
clambered out next moment on the friendly rocks 
with the bone of a man’s leg in ni}^ grasp. 

Mankind is a material creature, slow to think and 
dull to perceive connections. The grave, the wreck 
of the brig, and the rusty shoe-buckle were surely 
plain advertisements. A child might have read 
their dismal story, and yet it was not until I touched 
that actual piece of mankind that the full horror of 
the charnel ocean burst upon my spirit. I laid the 
bone beside the buckle, picked up my clothes, and 
ran as I was along the rocks toward the human 
shore. I could not be far enough from the spot ; 
no fortune was vast enough to tempt me back again. 
The bones of the drowned dead should henceforth 
roll undisturbed by me, whether on tangle or minted 
gold. But as soon as 1 trod the earth again, and had 
covered my nakedness against the sun, I knelt down 


TEE ME HR Y MEN. 


327 


over against the ruins of the brig, and out of the 
fullness of my heart prayed long and passionately 
for all poor souls upon the sea. A generous prayer 
is never presented in vain ; the petition may be re- 
fused, but the petitioner is always, I believe, re- 
warded by some gracious visitation. The horror, 
at least, was lifted from my mind; I could look 
with calm of spirit on that great bright creature, 
God’s ocean; and as I set off homeward up the 
rough sides of Aros, nothing remained of any con- 
cern beyond a deep determination to meddle no 
more with the spoils of wrecked vessels or the treas- 
ures of the dead. 

I was already some way up the hill before I 
paused to breathe and look behind me. The sight 
that met my eyes was doubly strange. 

For, first, the storm that I had foreseen was now 
advancing with almost tropical rapidity. The whole 
surface of the sea had been dulled from its conspicu- 
ous brightness to an ugly hue of corrugated lead ; al- 
ready in the distance the white waves, the “skipper’s 
daughters,” had begun to flee before a breeze that was 
still insensible on Aros ; and already along the curve 
of Sandag Bay there was a splashing run of sea 
that I could hear from where I stood. The change 
upon the sky was even more remarkable. There 
had begun to arise out of the southwest a huge and 
solid continent of scowling cloud ; here and there, 
through rents in its contexture, the sun still poured 
a sheaf of spreading rays ; and here and there, from 
all its edges, vast inky streamers lay forth along the 


H28 


THE MERRY MEN, 


yet unclouded sky. The menace was express and 
imminent. Eren as I gazed the sun was blotted out. 
At any moment the tempest might fall upon Aros 
in its might. 

The suddenness of this change of weather so fixed 
my eyes on heaven that it was some seconds before 
they alighted on the bay, mapped out below my 
feet, and robbed a moment later of the sun. The 
knoll which I had just surmounted overflanked a 
little amphitheater of lower hillocks sloping toward 
the sea, and beyond that the yellow arc of beach 
and the whole extent of Sandag Bay. It was a 
scene on which I had often looked down, but where 
I had never before beheld a human figure. I had 
but just turned my back upon it and left it empty, 
and my wonder may be fancied when I saw a boat 
and several men in that deserted spot. The boat 
was lying by the rocks. A pair of fellows, bare- 
headed, with their sleeves rolled up, and one with a 
boat-hook, kept her with diflBculty to her moorings, 
for the current was growing brisker every moment. 
A little way off upon the ledge two men in black 
clothes, whom I judged to be superior in rank, laid 
their heads together over some task which at first I 
did not understand, but a second after I had made 
it out — they were taking bearings with the com- 
pass ; and just then I saw one of them unroll a sheet 
of paper and lay his finger down, as though identi- 
fying features in a map. Meanwhile a third was 
walking to and fro, poking among the rocks and 
peering over the edge into the water. While I was 


TEE MERRY MEN, 


329 


still watching them with the stupefaction of sur- 
prise, my mind hardly yet able to work on what my 
eyes reported, this third person suddenly stooped 
and summoned his companions with a cry so loud 
that it reached my ears upon the hill. The others 
ran to him, even dropping the compass in their 
hurry, and I could see the bone and the shoe-buckle 
going from hand to hand, causing the most unusual 
gesticulations of surprise and interest. Just then I 
could hear the seamen crying from the boat, and 
saw them point westward to that cloud continent 
which was ever the more rapidly unfurling its black- 
ness over heaven. The others seemed to consult ; 
but the danger was too pressing to be braved, and 
they bundled into the boat carrying my relics with 
them, and set forth out of the bay with all speed of 
oars. 

I made no more ado about the matter, but turned 
and ran for the house. Whoever these men were, 
it was fit my uncle should be instantly informed. 
It was not then altogether too late in the da}^ for a 
descent of the Jacobites ; and may be Prince Charlie, 
whom I knew my uncle to detest, was one of the 
three superiors whom I had seen upon the rock. 
Yet as I ran, leaping from rock to rock, and turned 
the matter loosely in my mind, this theory grew 
ever the longer the less welcome to my reason. 
The compass, the map, the interest awakened by the 
buckle, and the conduct of that one among the 
strangers who had looked so often below him in the 
water, all seemed to point to a different explanation 


330 


THE MERRY MEN. 


of their presence on that outlying, obscure islet of 
the western sea. The Madrid historian, the search 
instituted by Dr. Eobertson, the bearded stranger 
with the rings, my own fruitless search that very 
morning in the deep water of Sandag Bay. ran to- 
gether, piece by piece, in my memory, and I made 
sure that these strangers must be Spaniards in quest 
of ancient treasure and the lost ship of the Armada. 
But the people living in outlying islands, such as 
Aros, are answerable for their own security ; there 
is none near by to protect or jven to help them ; 
and the presence in such a spot of a crew of foreign 
adventurers — poor, greedy, and most likely lawless 
— filled me with apprehensions for my uncle’s 
money, and even for the safety of his daughter. I 
was still wondering how we were to get rid of them 
when I came, all breathless, to the top of Aros. 
The whole world was shadov^red over ; only in the 
extreme east, on a hill of the mainland, one last 
gleam of sunshine lingered like a jewel ; rain had 
begun to fall, not heavily, but in great drops ; the 
sea was rising with each moment, and already a 
,band of white encircled Aros and the nearer coasts 
of Grisapol. The boat was still pulling seaward, 
but I now became aware of what had been hidden 
from me lower down — a large, heavily sparred, 
handsome schooner, lying to at the south end of 
Aros. Since I had not seen her in the morning 
when I had looked around so closely at the signs of 
the weather, and upon these lone waters where a 
Bail was rarely visible it was clear she must have 


THE MERRY MEN. 


331 


lain last night behind the uninhabited Eilean Gour, 
and this proved conclusively that she was manned 
by strangers to our coast, for that anchorage, though 
good enough to look at, is little better than a trap 
for ships. With such ignorant sailors upon so wild 
a coast, the coming gale was not unlikely to bring 
death upon its win^^s. 


TEE MEBRY MEN, 




OHAPTEE IV. 

THE GALE. 

I Fotc^D my uncle at the gable end, watching the 
signs oi the weather, with a pipe in his fingers. 

“Unde,” said I, “there were men ashore at San- 
dag Bay ” 

I had no time to go further; indeed, I not only 
forgot my words, but even my weariness, so strange 
was the effect on Uncle Gordon. He dropped his 
pipe and fell back against the end of the house with 
his jaw fallen, his eyes staring, and his long face as 
white as paper. We must have looked at one 
another silently for a quarter of a minute, before he 
made answer in this extraordinary fashion : “ Had 
he a hair kep on ?” 

I knew as well as if 1 had been there that the man 
who now lay buried at Sandag had worn a hairy 
cap, and that he had come ashore alive. For the 
first and only time I lost toleration for the man who 
was my benefactor and the father of the woman I 
hoped to call my wife. 

“ These were living men,” said I, “ perhaps Jacob- 
ites, perhaps the French, perhaps pirates, perhaps 
adventurers come here to seek the Spanish treasure 


THE MER117 MEN. 


333 


ship; but, whatever they may be, dangerous at 
least to your daughter and my cousin. As for your 
own guilty terrors, man, the dead sleeps well where 
you have laid him. I stood this morning by his 
grave ; he will not wake before the trump of doom.” 

My kinsman looked upon me, blinking, while I 
spoke; then he fixed his eyes for a little on the 
ground, and pulled his fingers foolishly ; but it was 
plain that he was past the power of speech. 

“ Come,” said I. “ You must think for others. 
You must come up the hill with me, and see this 
ship.” 

He obeyed without a word or a look, following 
slowly after my impatient strides. The spring 
seemed to have gone out of his body, and he scram- 
bled heavily up and down the rocks, instead of leap- 
ing, as he was wont, from one to another. JSTor 
could I, for all my cries, induce him to make better 
haste. Only once he replied to me complainingly, 
and like one in bodily pain : “ Ay, ay, man, Ihn 
coming.” Long before we had reached the top, I 
had no other thought for him but pity. If the 
crime had been monstrous, the punishment was in 
proportion. 

At last we emerged above the sky-line of the hill, 
and could see around us. All was black and stormy 
to the eye ; the last gleam of sun had vanished ; a 
wind had sprung up, not yet high, but gusty and un- 
steady to the point ; the rain, on the other hand, had 
ceased. Short as was the interval, the sea already 
ran vastly higher than when I had stood there last ; 


834 


THE MEBRT MEN. 


already it had begun to break over some of the out* 
ward reefs, and already it moaned aloud in the sea- 
caves of Aros. I looked, at first, in vain for the 
schooner. 

“There she is,” I said at last. But her new 
position, and the course she was now lying, puzzled 
me. “ They cannot mean to beat to sea,” I cried. 

“That’s what they mean,” said my uncle, with 
something like joy ; and just then the schooner 
went about and stood upon another tack, which put 
the question beyond the reach of doubt. These 
strangers, seeing a gale on hand, had thought first 
of sea-room. With the wind that threatened, in 
these reef -sown waters and contending against so 
violent a stream of tide, their course was certain 
death. 

“ Good God !” said I, “ they are all lost.” 

“ Ay,” returned my uncle, “ a’ — a’ lost. They had 
nae a chance but to rin for Kyle Dona. The gate 
they’re gaun the noo, they couldnae win through an 
the muckle deil were there to pilot them. Eh, man,” 
he continued, touching me on the sleeve, “it’s a 
braw nicht for a shipwreck ! Twa in ae twalmonth I 
Eh, but the Merry Men ’ll dance bonny !” 

1 looked at him, and it was then that I began to 
fancy him no longer in his right mind. He was 
peering up to me, as if for sympathy, a timid joy in 
his eyes. All that had passed between us was 
already forgotten in the prospect of this fresh 
disaster. 

“ If it were not too late,” I cried, with indignation, 


THE MERRY MEN. 


335 


I would take the coble and go out to warn 
them.” 

“Na, na,” he protested, “ye maunnae interfere; 
ye maunnae meddle wi’ the like o’ that. It’s His” 
— dofBng his bonnet — “His wull. And, eh, manl 
but it’s a braw nicht for’t !” 

Something like fear began to creep into my soul ; 
and, reminding him that I had not yet dined, I pro- 
posed we should return to the house. But no ; noth- 
ing would tear him from his place of outlook. 

“ I maun see the hail thing, man, Charley,” he ex- 
plained ; and then as the schooner went about a 
second time, “ Eh, but they han’le her bonny !” he 
cried. “ The Christ-Anna was naething to this.” 

Already the men on board the schooner must 
have begun to realize some part, but not yet the 
twentieth, of the dangers that environed their 
doomed ship. At every lull of the capricious wind 
they must have seen how fast the current swept 
them back. Each tack was made shorter, as they 
saw how little it prevailed. Every moment the 
rising swell began to boom and foam upon another 
sunken reef ; and ever and again a breaker would 
fall in sounding ruin under the very bows of her, 
and the brown reef and streaming tangle appear in 
the hoUow of the wave. I tell you, they had to 
stand to their tackle ; there was no idle man aboard 
that ship, God knows. It was upon the progress of 
a scene so horrible to any human-hearted man that 
my misguided uncle now pored and gloated like a 
connoisseur. As I turned to go down the hill, he 


336 


TEE MERRY MEN, 


was lying on his belly on the summit, with his 
hands stretched forth and clutching in the heather. 
He seemed rejuvenated, mind and body. 

When I got back to the house already dismally 
affected, I was still more sadly downcast at the 
sight of Mary. She had her sleeves rolled up over 
her strong arms, and was quietly making bread. I 
got a bannock from the dresser and sat down to eat 
it in silence. 

“ Are ye wearied, lad she asked after awhile, 

“ I am not so much w^earied, Mary,’’ I replied, 
getting on my feet, “ as I am weary of delay, and 
perhaps of Aros too. You know me well enough 
to judge me fairly, say what I like. Well, Mary, 
you may be sure of this : you had better be any- 
where but here.” 

“ I’ll be sure of one thing,” she returned, “ I’ll 
be where my duty is.” 

“You forget, you have a duty to yourself,” I 
said. 

“ Ay, man she replied, pounding at the dough ; 
“ will you have found that in the Bible, now ?” 

“ Mary,” I said solemnly, “ you must not laugh at 
me mst now. God knows I am in no heart for 
laughing. If we could get your father with us, it 
would be best ; but with him or without him, I want 
you far away from here, my girl ; for your own 
sake, and for mine, ay, and for your father’s too, I 
want your far — far away from here. I came Avith 
other thoughts ; I came here as a man comes home ; 
now it is all changed, and I have no desire nor hope 


THE MERRT MEN, 


337 


but to flee — for that’s the word — flee, like a bird 
out of the fowler’s snare, from this accursed island.” 

She had stopped her work by this time. 

“ And do you think, now,” said she, “ do you 
think, now, I have neither eyes nor ears ? Do ye 
think I havenae broken my heart to have these 
braws (as he calls them, God forgive him !) thrown 
into the sea? Do you think I have lived with him, 
day in, day out, and not seen what you saw in an 
hour or two? No,” she said, “I know there’s 
wrong in it ; tvhat wrong, I neither know nor want 
to know. There was never an ill thing made better 
by meddling, that I could hear of. But, my lad, 
you must never ask me to leave my father. While 
the breath is in his body. I’ll be with him. And 
he’s not long for here, either : that I can tell you, 
Charley — he’s not long for here. The mark is on 
his brow ; and better so — may be better so.” 

I was awhile silent, not knowing what to say ; 
and when I roused my head at last to speak, she 
got before me. 

“ Charley,” she said, “ what’s right for me, 
neednae be right for you. There’s sin upon this 
house and trouble ; you are a stranger ; take your 
things upon your back and go your ways to better 
places and to better folk, and if you were ever 
minded to come back, though it were twenty years 
syne, you would find me aye waiting.” 

“ Mary Ellen,” I said, “ I asked you to be my 
wife, and you said as good as yes. That’s done for 
good. Wherever you are, I am ; as I shall answer 
to my God.” 


338 


TEE MERRY MEN. 


As I said the words, the wind suddenly burst out 
raving, and then seemed to stand still and shudder 
round the house of Aros. It was the first squall, or 
prologue, of the coming tempest, and as we started 
and looked about us, we found that a gloom, like the 
approach of evening, had settled round the house. 

“God pity all poor folks at sea!” she said. 
■‘Well see no more of my father till the morrow’s 
morning.” 

And then she told me, as we sat by the fire and 
hearkened to the rising gusts, of how this change 
had fallen upon my uncle. All last winter he had 
been dark and fitful in his mind. Whenever the 
Roost ran high, or, as Mary said, whenever the 
Merr}^ Men were dancing, he would lie out for 
hours together on the Head, if it were at night, or 
on the top of Aros by day, watching the tumult of 
the sea, and sweeping the horizon for a sail. After 
February the tenth, when the wealth-bringing wreck 
was cast ashore at Sandag, he had been at first un- 
naturally gay, and his excitement had never fallen 
in degree, but only changed in kind from dark to 
darker. He neglected his work, and kept Rorie 
idle. They two would speak together by the hour 
at the gable end, in guarded tones and with an air 
of secrecy and almost of guilt ; and if she questioned 
either, as at first she sometimes did, her inquiries 
were put aside with confusion. Since Rorie had 
first remarked the fish that hung about the ferry, 
his master had never set foot but once upon the 
mainland of the Ross. That once— it was in the 


THE MERRY MEN. 


339 


height of the springs — he had passed dryshod while 
the tide was out ; but, having lingered overlong on 
the far side, found himself cut otf from Aros by the 
returning waters. It was with a shriek of agony 
that he had leaped across the gut, and he had 
reached home thereafter in a fever-fit of fear. 
A fear of the sea, a constant haunting thought of 
the sea, appeared in his talk and devotions, and 
even in his looks when he was silent. 

Rorie alone came into supper ; but a little later 
my uncle appeared, took a bottle under his arm, put 
some bread in his pocket, and set forth again to his 
outlook, followed this time by Rorie. I heard that 
the schooner was losing ground, but the crew were 
still fighting every inch with hopeless ingenuity and 
courage; and the news filled my mind with black- 
ness. 

A little after sundown the full fury of the gale 
broke forth, such a gale as I have never seen in sum- 
mer, nor, seeing how swiftly it had come, even in 
winter. Mary and I sat in silence, the house quak- 
ing overhead, the tempest howling without, the fire 
between us sputtering with raindrops. Our thoughts 
were far away with the poor fellows on the 
schooner, or my not less unhappy uncle, houseless 
on the promontory; and yet ever and again we 
were startled back to ourselves, when the wind 
would rise and strike the gable like a solid body, or 
suddenl}’’ fall and draw away, so that the fire leaped 
into fiame and our hearts bounded in our sides. 
!Now the storm in its might would seize and shake 


340 


TEE MERRY MEN. 


the four corners of the roof, roaring like a Leviathan 
in anger. Anon, in a lull, cold eddies of tempesp 
moved shudderingly in the room, lifting the hair 
upon our heads and passing between us as we sat. 
And again the wind would break forth in a choruj^ 
of melancholy sounds, hooting low in the chimney, 
wailing with flute-like softness round the house. 

It was perhaps eight o’clock when Korie came in 
and pulled me mysteriously to the door. My uncle, 
it appeared, had frightened even his constant 
comrade ; and Korie, uneasy at his extravagance, 
prayed me to come out and share the watch. I 
hastened to do as I was asked ; the more readily as, 
what with fear and horror, and the electrical tension 
of the night, I was myself restless and disposed for 
action. I told Mary to be under no alarm, for I 
should be a safeguard on her father; and wrapping 
myself warmly in a plaid, I followed Korie into the 
open air. 

The night, though we were so little past mid- 
summer, was as dark as January. Intervals of a 
groping twilight alternated with spells of utter 
blackness ; and it was impossible to trace the reason 
of these changes in the flying horror of the sky. 
The wind blew the breath out of a man’s nostril’s ; 
all heaven seemed to thunder overhead like one huge 
sail; and when there fell a momentary lull on 
Aros. we could hear the gusts dismally sweeping in 
the distance. Over all the lowlands of the Koss, 
the wind must have blown as fierce as on the open 
sea; and God only knows the uproar that was 


THE MERRY MEN. 


341 


around the head of Ben Kyaw. Sheets of 
mingled spray and rain were driven in our faces. 
All round the isle of Aros the surf, with an inces- 
sant, hammering thunder, beat upon the reefs and 
beaches. Now louder in one place, now lower in 
another, like the combinations of orchestral music, 
the constant mass of sound was hardly varied for a 
moment. And loud above all this hurly-burly I 
could hear the changeful voices of the Boost and 
the intermittent roaring of the Merry Men. At 
that hour, there flashed into my mind the reason of 
the name that they were called. For the noise of 
them seemed almost mirthful, as it out-topped the 
other noises of the night ; or if not mirthrul, yet 
instinct with a portentous joviality. Nay, and it 
seemed even human. As when savage men have 
drunk away their reason, and, discarding speech, 
bawl together in their madness by the hour ; so, to 
my ears, these deadly breakers shouted by Aros in 
the night. 

Arm in arm, and staggering against the wind, 
Borie and I won every yard of ground with a con- 
scious effort. We slipped on the wet sod, we fell 
together sprawling on the rocks. Bruised, drenched, 
beaten, and breathless, it must have taken us near 
half an hour to get from the house down to the 
Head that overlooks the Boost. There, it seemed, 
was my uncle’s favorite observatory. Bight in the 
face of it, where the cliff is highest and most cheer, 
a hump of earth, like a parapet, makes a place of 
shelter from the common winds, where a man raa/ 


842 


THE MEUUr MEN, 


sit in quiet and see the tide and the mad billows 
contending at his feet. As he might look down 
from the window of a house upon some street dis- 
turbance, so, from this post, he looks down upon the 
tumbling of the Merry Men. On such a night, of 
course, he peers upon a world of blackness, where 
the waters wheel and boil, where the waves joust 
together with the noise of an explosion, and the 
foam towers and vanishes in the twinkling of an 
eye. Never before had I seen the Merry Men thus 
violent. The fury, height and transiency of their 
spoutings was a thing to be seen and not recounted. 
High over our heads on the cliff rose their white 
columns in the darkness ; and the same instant, like 
phantoms, they were gone. Sometimes three at a 
time would thus aspire and vanish ; sometimes a 
gust took them, and the spray would fall about us, 
heavy as a wave. And yet the spectacle was rather 
maddening in its levity than impressive by its force. 
Thought was beaten down by the confounding up- 
roar ; a gleeful vacancy possessed the brains of men, 
a state akin to madness; and I found myself at 
times following the dance of the Merry Men as it 
were a tune upon a jigging instrument. 

I first caught sight of ray uncle when we were 
still some yards away in one of the flying glimpses 
of twilight that checkered the pitch darkness of the 
night. He was standing up behind the parapet, his 
head thrown back and the bottle to his mouth. As 
he put it down, he saw and recognized us with a toss 
of one hand fleeringly above his head. 


TEE MERRY MEN. 


343 


“Has he been drinking?” shouted I to Korie. 

“ He will aye be drunk when the wind blaws,” 
returned Eorie, in the same high ke}’^, and it was all 
that I could do to hear him. 

“ Then — was he so — in February ?” I inquired. 

Eorie’s “ Ay ” was a cause of joy to me. The 
murder, then, had not sprung in cold blood from 
calculation ; it was an act of madness no more to 
be condemned than to be pardoned. My uncle was 
a dangerous madman, if you will, but he was not 
cruel and base as I had feared. Yet what a scene 
for a carouse, what an incredible vice, was this that 
the poor man had chosen ! I have always thought 
drunkenness a wild and almost fearful pleasure, 
rather demoniacal than human ; but drunkenness, 
out here in the roaring blackness, on the edge of a 
cliff above that hell of waters, the man’s head spin- 
ning like the Eoost, his foot tottering on the edge 
of death, his ear watching for the signs of shipwreck, 
surely that, if it were credible in any one, was mor- 
ally impossible in a man like my uncle, whose mind 
was set upon a damnatory creed and haunted by 
the darkest superstitions. Yet so it was ; and, as 
we reached the bight of shelter and could breathe 
again, I saw the man’s eyes shining in the night 
with an unholy glimmer. 

“ Eh, Charley, man, it’s grand !” he cried. “ See 
CO them ?” he continued, dragging me to the edge 
of the abyss from which arose that deafening clamor 
and those clouds of spray ; “ see to them dancin', 
man ! Is that no wicked ?” 


344 


THE MEBBT MEN. 


He pronounced the word with gusto, and 1 
thought it suited with the scene. 

“ They’re yowlin’ for thon schooner,” he went on, 
his thin, insane voice clearly audible in the shelter 
of the bank, ‘‘an’ she’s cornin’ aye nearer, aye 
nearer, aye nearer, an’ nearer, an’ nearer ; an’ they 
ken’t, the folk kens it, they ken weel it’s by wi’ 
them. Charley, lad, they’re a’ drunk in yon schooner, 
a’ dozened wi’ drink. They were a’ drunk in the 
Christ- Anna, at the hinder end. There’s nane 
could droon at sea wantin’ the brandy. Hoot awa, 
what do you ken with a sudden blast of anger. 
“ I tell ye, it cannae be ; they daurnae droon with- 
oot it. Ha’e,” holding out the bottle, “ tak’ a sowp.’' 

I was about to refuse, but Rorie touched me as if 
in warning; and indeed I had already thought 
better of the movement. I took the bottle, there* 
fore, and not only drank freely myself, but con- 
trived to spill even more as I was doing so. It w^as 
pure spirit, and almost strangled me to swallow. 
My kinsman did not observe the loss, but, once more 
throwing back his head, drained the remainder of 
the dregs. Then, with a loud laugh, he cast the 
bottle forth among the Merry Men, who seemed to 
leap up, shouting to receive it. 

“ Ha’e, bairns !” he cried, “ there’s your han’seh 
Ye’ll get bonnier nor that, or morning.” 

Suddenly, out in the black night before us, and 
not two hundred yards away, we heard, at a moment 
when the wind was silent, the clear note of a human 
voice. Instantly the wind swept howling down 


THE MERRY MEN, 


345 


npon the Head, and the Roost bellowed, and 
churned, and danced with a new fury. But we had 
heard the sound, and we knew, with agony, that this 
was the doomed ship now close on ruin, and that 
what we had heard was the voice of her master 
issuing his last command. Crouching together on 
the edge, we waited, straining every sense, for the 
inevitable end. It was long, however, and to us it 
seemed like ages, ere the schooner suddenly appeared 
for one brief instant, relieved against a tower of 
glimmering foam. I still see her reefed mainsail 
flapping loose, as the boom fell heavily across the 
deck ; I still see the black outline of the hull, and 
still think I can distinguish the figure of a man 
stretched upon the tiller. Yet the whole sight we 
had of her passed swifter than lightning; the very 
wave that disclosed her fell, burying her forever ; 
the mingled cry of many voices at the point of 
death rose and was quenched in the roaring of the 
Merry Men. And with that the tragedy was at an 
end. The strong ship, with all her gear, and the 
lamp perhaps still burning in her cabin, the lives of 
so many men, precious surely to others, dear, at 
least, as heaven to themselves, had all, in that one 
moment, gone down into the surging waters. They 
were gone like a dream. And the wind still ran and 
shouted, and the senseless waters in the Roost still 
leaped and tumbled as before. 

How long we lay there together, we three, 
speechless and motionless, is more than I can tell, 
but it must have been for long. At length, one by 


346 


TEE MEBRY MEN, 


one, and almost mechanically, we crawled back into 
the shelter of the bank. As I lay against the 
parapet, wholly wretched and not entirely master 
of my mind, I could hear my kinsman maundering 
to himself in an altered and melancholy mood. JSTo w 
he would repeat to himself with maudlin iteration, 
“ Sic a fecht as they had — sic a sair fecht as they 
had, puir lads, puir lads !” and anon he would bewail 
that “ a’ the gear was as gude’s tint,” because the 
ship had gone down among the Merry Men instead 
of standing on the shore ; and throughout, the name 
— The Christ-Anna — would come and go in his 
divagations, pronounced with shuddering awe. The 
storm all this time was rapidly abating. In half an 
hour the wind had fallen to a breeze, and the change 
was accompanied or caused by a heavy, cold, and 
plumping rain. I must then have fallen asleep, and 
when I came to myself, drenched, stiff, and un- 
refreshed, day had already broken, gray, wet, dis- 
comfortable day; the wind blew in faint and shift- 
ing capfuls, the tide was out, the Eoost was at its 
lowest, and only the strong beating surf round all 
the coasts of Aros remained to witness of the furies 
of the night. 


THE MERRY MEN. 


347 


CHAPTER y. 

A MAN OUT OF THE SEA. 

Roeie set out for the house in search of warmth 
and breakfast; but my uncle was bent upon exam- 
ining the shores of Aros, and I felt it a part of duty 
to accompany him throughout. He was now docile 
and quiet, but tremulous and weak in mind and 
body ; and it was with the eagerness of a child that 
he pursued his exploration. He climbed far down 
upon the rocks ; on the beaches he pursued the re- 
treating breakers. The merest broken plank or rag 
of cordage was a treasure in his eyes to be secured 
at the peril of his life. To see him, with weak and 
stumbling footsteps, expose himself to the pursuit 
of the surf, or the snares and pitfalls of the weedy 
rock, kept mo in a perpetual terror. My arm was 
ready to support him, my hand clutched him by the 
skirt, I helped him to draw his pitiful discoveries 
beyond the reach of the returning wave ; a nurse 
accompanying a child of seven would have had no 
different experience. 

Yet, weakened as he was by the reaction from 
his madness of the night before, the passions that 


348 


THE MEBBY 


smoldered in his nature were those of a strong man. 
His terror of the sea, although conquered for the 
moment, was still undirainished ; had the sea been 
a lake of living flames, he could not have shrunk 
more panicallj from its touch ; and once, when his 
foot slipped and he plunged to the midleg into a 
pool of water, the shriek that came up out of his 
soul was like the cry of death. He sat still for 
awhile, panting like a dog, after that ; but his desire 
for the spoils of shipwreck triumphed once more 
over his fears ; once more he tottered among the 
curded foam ; once more he crawled upon the rocks 
among the bursting bubbles ; once more his whole 
heart seemed to be set on driftwood, fit, if it was 
fit for anything, to throw upon the fire. Pleased as 
he was with what he found, he still incessantly 
grumbled at his ill fortune. 

“ Aros,” he said, “ is no place for wrecks ava’ — 
no ava’. A’ the years Pve dwalt here, this ane 
maks the second ; and the best o’ the gear clean 
tint !” 

“ Uncle,” said I, for we were now on a stretch of 
open sand where there was nothing to divert his 
mind, “ I saw you last night as I never thought to 
see you — you were drunk.” 

“ Ha, na,” he said, “ no as bad as that. I had 
been drinking, though. And to tell ye the God’s 
truth, it’s a thing I cannae mend. There’s nae 
soberer man than me in my ordnar ; but when I 
hear the wind blaw in my lug, it’s my belief that I 
gang gyte.” 


2 HE MERUT MEN, 


349 


You are a religious man,” I replied, “ and this 
is sin.” 

“ Ou,” he returned, “ if it wasnae sin, I dinnae 
ken that I would care for’t. Ye see, man, it’s defi- 
ance. There’s a sair spang o’ the auld sin o’ the 
warld in yon sea; it’s an unchristian business at the 
best o’t ; an’ whiles when it gets up, an’ the wind 
skreighs — the wind an’ her are a kind of sib, I’m 
thinkin’ — an’ thae Merry Men, the daft callants, 
blawin’ and lauchin’, and puir souls in the deid 
thraws warstlin’ the leelang nicht wi’ their bit ships 
— weel, it comes ower me like a glamour. I’m a 
deil, I ken’t. But I think naething o’ the puir sailor 
lads ; I’m wi’ the sea, I’m just like ane o’ her ain 
Merry Men.” 

I thought I should touch him in a joint of his 
harness. I turned me toward the sea ; the surf was 
running gayly, wave after wave, with their manes 
blowing behind them, riding one after another up 
the beach, towering, curving, falling one upon an- 
other on the trampled sand. Without, the salt air, 
the scared gulls, the widespread army of the sea- 
chargers, neighing to each other as they gathered 
together to the assault of Aros ; and close before us, 
that line on the flat sands that, with all their num- 
ber and their fury, they might never pass. 

‘‘ Thus far shalt thou go,” said I, “ and no further.’'' 
And then I quoted as solemnly as I was able a 
verse that I had often before fitted to the chorus ol 
the breakers— 


UQ 


THE MERRY ME Jit 


** But yet the Lord that is on high. 

Is more of might by far, 

Than noise of many waters is, 

As great sea billows are.” 

‘‘Av,” said ray kinsraan, “at the hinder end, the 
Lord will triumph ; I dinnae misdoobt that. But 
here on earth, even silly men-folk daur Him to His 
face. It is nae wise ; I am nae say in’ that it’s wise ; 
but it’s the pride of the eye, and it’s the lust o’ life, 
an’ it’s the wale o’ pleesures.” 

I said no more, for we had now begun to cross a 
neck of land that lay between us and Sandag ; and 
I withheld my last appeal to the man’s better 
reason till we should stand upon the spot associated 
with his crime. Hor did he pursue the subject ; 
but he walked beside me with a firmer step. The 
call that I had made upon his mind acted like a 
stimulant, and I could see that he had forgotten his 
seach for worthless jetsam, in a profound, gloomy, 
and yet stirring train of thought. In three or four 
minutes we had topped the brae and begun to gc 
down upon Sandag. The wreck had been roughly 
handled by the sea ; the stem had been spun round 
and dragged a little lower down ; and perhaps the 
stern had been forced a little higher, for the two 
parts now lay entirely separate on the beach. 
When we came to the grave I stopped, uncovered 
my head in the thick rain, and, looking my kinsman 
in the face, addressed him. 

“ A man,” said I, “ was in God’s providence 
suffered to escape from mortal dangers; he was 


THE MEURT MEN, 


351 


poor, he was naked, he was wet, he was weary, he 
was a stranger ; he had every claim upon the 
bowels of your compassion ; it may be that he was 
the salt of the earth, holy, helpful, and kind ; it 
may be he was a man laden with iniquities to whom 
death was the beginning of torment. I ask you in 
the sight of Heaven : Gordon Darnaway, where is 
the man for whom Christ died?” 

He started visibly at the last words ; but there 
came no answer, and his face expressed no feeling 
but a vague alarm. 

‘‘You were my father’s brother,” I continued; 
“ you have taught me to count your house as if it 
were my father’s house ; and we were both sinful 
men walking before the Lord among the sins and 
dangers of this life. It is by our evil that God 
leads us into good ; we sin, I dare not say by His 
temptation, but I must say with His consent; and 
to any but the brutish man his sins are the begin- 
ning of wisdom. God has warned you by this 
crime; He warns you still by the bloody grave 
between our feet; and if there shall follow no 
repentance, no improvement, no return to Him, 
what can we look for but the following of some 
memorable judgment ?” 

Even as I spoke the words, the eyes of my uncle 
wandered from my face. A change fell upon his 
looks that cannot be described ; his features seemed 
to dwindle in size, the color faded from his cheeks, 
one hand rose waveringly and pointed over my 
-jhoiilder into the distance, and the oft-repeated 


U62 


THE MERRT MEN. 


name fell once more from his lips: ^‘The Christ- 
Anna !” 

I turned ; and if I was not appalled to the same 
degree, as I return thanks to Heaven that I had not 
the cause, I was still startled by the sight that met 
ray eyes. The form of a man stood upright on the 
cabin-hutch of the wrecked ship; his back was 
toward us ; he appeared to be scanning the offing 
with shaded eyes, and his figure was relieved to its 
full height, which was plainly verj'- great, against 
the sea and sky. I have said a thousand times that 
I am not superstitious ; but at that moment, with 
my mind running upon death and sin, the un- 
explained appearance of a stranger on that seagirt, 
solitary island filled me with a surprise that bordered 
close on terror. It seemed scarce possible that any 
human soul should have come ashore alive in such 
a sea as had raged last night along the coasts of 
Aros ; and the only vessel within miles had gone 
down before our eyes among the Merry Men. I 
was assailed with doubts that made suspense un- 
bearable, and, to put the matter to the touch at 
once, stepped forward and hailed the figure like a 
ship. 

He turned about, and I thought he started to be- 
hold us. At this my courage instantly revived, and 
I called and signed to him to draw near, and he, on 
his part, dropped immediately to the sands and began 
slowly to approach, with many stops and hesita- 
tions. At each repeated mark of the man’s uneasi- 
ness I grew the more confident myself; and I 


THE MERRY MKN, 


353 


advanced another step, encouraging him as I did so 
with my head and hand. It was plain the castaway 
had heard different accounts of our island hospi- 
tality ; and indeed, about this time, the people fur- 
ther north had a sorry reputation. 

“ Why,” I said, “ the man is black !” 

And just at that moment, in a voice that I could 
scarce have recognized, my kinsman began swearing 
and praying in a mingled stream. I looked at him ; 
he had fallen on his knees, his face was agonized ; at 
each step of the castaway’s the pitch of his voice 
rose, the volubility of his utterance and the fervor 
of his language redoubled. I call it prayer, for it 
was addressed to God ; but surely no such ranting 
incongruities were ever before addressed to the 
Creator by a creature : surely if prayer can be a 
sin, this mad harangue was sinful. I ran to my 
kinsman, I seized him by the shoulders, I dragged 
him to his feet. 

“ Silence, man,” said I, “ respect your God in 
words, if not in action. Here, on the very scene of 
your transgressions. He sends you an occasion of 
atonement. Forward and embrace it ; welcome like 
a father yon creature who comes trembling to your 
mercy.” 

With that, I tried to force him toward the black ; 
but he felled me to the ground, burst from my 
grasp, leaving the shoulder of his jacket, and fled 
up the hillside toward the top of Aros like a deer. 
I staggered to my feet again, bruised and somewhat 
stunned ; the negro had paused in surprise, perhaps 


354 


THE MERRY MEN. 


in terror, some halfway between me and the wreck ; 
my uncle was already far away, bounding from rock 
to rock ; and I thus found myself torn for a time be- 
tween two duties. But I judged, and I pray Heaven 
that I judged rightly, in favor of the poor wretch 
upon the sands ; his misfortune was at least not 
plainly of his own creation ; it was one, besides, 
that I could certainly relieve ; and I had begun by 
that time to regard my uncle as an incurable and 
dismal lunatic. I advanced accordingly toward the 
black, who now awaited my approach with folded 
arms, like one prepared for either destiny. As I 
came nearer, he reached forth bis hand with a great 
gesture, such as I had seen from the pulpit, and 
spoke to me in something of a pulpit voice, but not 
a word was comprehensible. I tried him first in 
English, then in Gaelic, both in vain ; so that it was 
clear we must rely upon the tongue of looks and 
gestures. Thereupon I signed to him to follow me, 
which he did readily and with a grave obeisance 
like a fallen kind ; all the while there had come no 
shade of alteration in his face, neither of anxiety 
while he was still waiting, nor of relief now that he 
was reassured ; if he were a slave, as I supposed, I 
could not but judge he must have fallen from some 
high place in his own country, and fallen as he was, 
I could not but admire his bearing. As we passed 
the grave, I paused and raised my hands and eyes 
to heaven in token of respect and sorrow for the 
dead ; and he, as if in answer, bowed low and spread 
his hands abroad ; it was a strange motion, but done 


THE MERRY MEN. 


355 


like a thing of common custom ; and I suppose it 
was ceremonial in the land from which he came. 
At the same time he pointed to my uncle, whom we 
could just see perched upon a knoll, and touched 
his head to indicate that he was mad. 

We took the long way round the shore, for I 
feared to excite my uncle if we struck across the 
island ; and as we walked, I had time enough to 
mature the little dramatic exhibition by which I 
hoped to satisfy my doubts. Accordingly, pausing 
on a rock, I proceeded to imitate before the negro 
the action of the man whom 1 had seen the day be- 
fore taking bearings with the compass at Sandag. 
He understood me at once, and, taking the imitation 
out of my hands, showed me where the boat was, 
pointed out seaward as if to indicate the position of 
the schooner, and then down along the edge of the 
rock with the words : “ Espirito Santo,” strangely 
pronounced, but clear enough for recognition. 1 had 
thus been right in my conjecture ; the pretended 
historical inquiry had been but a cloak for treasure 
hunting ; the man who had played Dr, Kobertson 
was the same as the foreigner who had visited Gris- 
apol in the spring, and now, with many others, lay 
dead under the Eoost of Aros : there had their greed 
brought them, there should their bones be tossed 
for evermore. In the meantime the black continued 
his imitation of the scene, now looking up skyward 
as though watching the approach of the storm; 
now, in the character of a seaman, waving the rest 
to come aboard ; now as an officer, running along 


366 


THU MERRY MEN. 


the rock and entering the boat; and anon bending 
over imaginary oars with the air of a hurried boab 
man ; but all with the same solemnity of manner, 
so that I was never even moved to smile. Lastly, 
he indicated to me, by a pantomime not to be 
described in words, how he himself had gone up to 
examine the stranded wreck, and, to his grief and 
indignation, had been deserted by his comrades; 
and thereupon folded his arms once more, and 
stooped his head, like one accepting fate. 

The mystery of his presence being thus solved 
for me, I explained to him by means of a sketch the 
fate of the vessel, and of all aboard her. He showed 
no surprise nor sorrow, and, with a sudden lifting of 
his open hand, seemed to dismiss his former friends 
or masters (whichever they had been) into God’s 
pleasure. Kespect came upon me and grew stronger 
the more I observed him ; I saw he had a powerful 
urnd and a sober and severe character, such as I 
loved to commune with ; and before we reached the 
house of Aros I had almost forgotten, and wholly 
forgiven him, his uncanny color. 

! To Mary I told all that had passed without sup- 
pression, though I own my heart failed me ; but I 
did wrong to doubt her sense of justice. 

“You did the right,” she said. “God’s will be 
done.” And she set out meat for us at once. 

As soon as I was satisfied, I bade Eorie keep an 
eye upon the castaway, who was still eating, and set 
forth again myself to find my uncle. I had not 
gone far before I saw him sitting in the same place, 


TEE MERRY MEN. 


357 


upon the very topmost knoll, and seemingly in the 
same attitude as when I had last observed him. 
From that point, as I have said, the most of Aros 
and the neighboring Boss would be spread below 
him like a map ; and it was plain that he kept a 
bright lookout in all directions, for my head had 
scarcely risen above the summit of the first ascent 
before he had leaped to his feet and turned as if to 
face me. I hailed him at once, as well as I was 
able, in the same tones and words as 1 had often 
used before, when I had come to summon him to 
dinner. He made not so much as a movement in 
reply. I passed on a little further, and again tried 
parley, with the same result. But when I began a 
second time to advance, his insane fears blazed up 
again, and still in dead silence, but with incredible 
speed, he began to flee from before me along the rocky 
summit of the hill. An hour before he had been dead 
weary, and I had been comparatively active. But 
now his strength was recruited by the fervor of in- 
sanity, and it would have been vain for me to dream 
of pursuit. Hay, the very attempt, I thought, 
might have inflamed his terrors, and thus increased 
the miseries of our position. And I had nothing 
left but to turn homeward and make my sad report 
to Mary. 

She heard it, as she had heard the first, with a 
concerned composure, and, bidding me lie down an^. 
take that rest of which I stood so much in need, set 
forth herself in quest of her misguided father. At 
that age it would have been a strange thing that 


358 


TEE MERRY MEN. 


put me from either meat or sleep ; I slept long and 
deep ; and it was already long past noon before I 
awoke and came downstairs into the kitchen. Mary, 
Korie, and the black castaway were seated about 
the fire in silence ; and I could see that Mary had 
been weeping. There was cause enough, as I soon 
learned, for tears. First she, and then Korie, had 
been forth to seek my uncle ; each in turn had found 
him perched upon the hilltop, and from each in turn 
he had silently and swiftly fled. Korie had tried to 
chase him, but in vain ; madness lent a new vigor to 
his bounds ; he sprung from rock to rock over the 
widest gullies ; he scoured like the wind along the 
hilltops ; he doubled and twisted like a hare before 
the dogs ; and Korie at length gave in ; and the last 
that he saw, my uncle was seated as before upon the 
crest of Aros. Even during the hottest excitement 
of the chase, even when the fleet-footed servant had 
come, for a moment, very near to capture him, the 
poor lunatic had uttered not a sound. He fled, and 
he was silent, like a beast ; and this silence had 
terrified his pursuer. 

There was something heart-breaking in the 
situation. How to capture the madman, how to 
feed him in the meanwhile, and what to do with him 
when he was captured, were the three difiiculties 
that we had to solve. 

“ The black,” said I, “is the cause of this attack. 
It may even be his presence in the house that keeps 
my uncle on the hill. We have done the fair thing ; 
he has been fed and warmed under this roof ; now I 


THE MERRY MEN. 


359 


propose that Eorie put him across the bay iu the 
coble, and take him through the Eoss as far as 
Grisapol.” 

In this proposal Mary heartily concurred; and 
bidding the black follow us, we all three descended 
to the pier. Certainly, Heaven’s will was declared 
against Gordon Darnaway ; a thing had happened, 
never paralleled before in Aros; during the storm, 
the coble had broken loose, and, striking on the 
rough splinters of the pier, now lay in four feet of 
water with one side stove in. Three days of work 
at least would be required to make her float. But I 
was not to be beaten. I led the whole party round 
to where the gut was narrowest, swam to the other 
side, and called to the black to follow me. He 
signed, with the same clearness and quiet as before, 
that he knew not the art; and there was truth 
apparent in his signals, it would have occurred to 
none of us to doubt his truth ; and that hope being 
over, we must all go back even as we came to the 
house of Aros, the negro walking in our midst with- 
out embarrassment. 

All we could do that day was to make one more 
attempt to communicate with the unhappy madman. 
Again he was visible on his perch ; again he fled in 
silence. But food and a great cloak were at least 
left for his comfort ; the rain, besides, had cleared 
away, and the night promised to be even warm. 
We might compose ourselves, we thought, until the 
morrow ; rest was the chief requisite, that we might 
be strengthened for unusual exertions ; and as none 
cared to talk, we separated at an early hour. 


360 


THE MERRY MEN. 


I lay lon^ awake, planning a campaign for the 
morrow. I was to place the black on the side of 
Sandag, whence he should head my uncle toward 
the house ; Eorie in the west, I on the east, were 
to complete the cordon as best we might. It 
seemed to me, the more I recalled the configuration 
of the island, that it should be possible, though 
hard, to force him down upon the low ground along 
Aros Bay ; and once there, even with the strength 
of his madness, ultimate escape was hardly to be 
feared. It was on his terror of the black that I 
relied; for I made sure, however he might run, it 
would not be in the direction of the man whom he 
supposed to have returned from the dead, and thus 
one point of the compass at least would be secure. 

When at length I fell asleep, it was to be awak- 
ened shortly after by a dream of wrecks, black men, 
and submarine adventure ; and I found myself so 
shaken and fevered that I arose, descended the stair, 
and stepped out before the house. Within, Eorie 
and the black were asleep together in the kitchen ; 
outside was a wonderful clear night of stars, with 
here and there a cloud still hanging, last stragglers 
of the tempest. It was near the top of the flood, 
and the Merry Men were roaring in the windless 
quiet of the night. Never, not even in the height 
of the tempest, had I heard their song with greater 
awe. Now, when the winds were gathered home, 
when the deep was dandling itself back into its 
summer slumber, and when the stars rained their 
gentle light over land and sea, the voice of 


THE MERRY MEN, 


361 


these tide-breakers was still raised for havoc. They 
seemed, indeed, to be a part of the world’s evil and 
the tragic side of life. Nor were their meaningless 
vociferations the only sounds that broke the silence 
of the night. For I could hear, now shrill and 
thrilling and now almost drowned, the note of a 
human voice that accompanied the uproar of the 
^Roost. I knew it for my kinsman’s; and a great 
fear fell upon me of God’s judgments, and the evil 
in the world. I went back again into the darkness 
of the house as into a place of shelter, and lay long 
upon my bed, pondering these mysteries. 

It was late when I again woke, and I leaped into 
my clothes and hurried to the kitchen. No one 
was there ; Rorie and the black had both stealthily 
departed long before ; and my heart stood still at 
the discovery. I could rely on Rorie’s heart, but I 
placed no trust in his discretion. If he had thus set 
out without a word, he was plainly bent upon 
some service to my uncle. But what service could 
he hope to render even alone, far less in the com- 
pany of the man in whom m}^ uncle found his fears 
incarnated ? Even if I were not already too late to 
prevent some deadly mischief, it was plain I must 
delay no longer. With the thought I was out oi 
the house ; and often as I have run on the rough 
sides of Aros, I never ran as I did that fatal morn- 
ing. I do not believe I put twelve minutes to the 
whole ascent. 

My uncle was gone from his perch. The basket 
had indeed been torn open and the meat scattered 


862 


THE MERRY MEN, 


on the turf ; but, as we found afterward, no mouth- 
ful had been tasted; and there was not another 
trace of human existence in that wide field of view. 
Day had already filled the clear heavens ; the sun 
already lighted in a rosy bloom upon the crest of 
Ben Kyaw ; but all below me the rude knolls of 
Aros and the shield of the sea lay steeped in the 
clear darkling twilight of the dawn. 

“ Rorie !” I cried ; and again “ Rorie.” My voice 
died in the silence, but there came no answer back. 
If there were indeed an enterprise afoot to catch 
my uncle, it was plainly not in fieetness of foot, but 
in dexterity of stalking, that the hunters placed 
their trust. I ran on further, keeping the higher 
spurs, and looking right and left, nor did I pause 
again till I was on the mount above Sandag. I 
could see the wreck, the uncovered belt of sand, the 
waves idly beating, the long ledge of rocks, and on 
either hand the tumbled knolls, bowlders, and 
gullies of the island. But still no human thing. 

At a stride the sunshine fell on Aros, and the 
shadows and colors leaped into being, ^ot half a 
moment later, below me to the west, sheep began 
to scatter as in a panic. There came a cry. I saw 
my uncle running. I saw the black jump up in hot 
pursuit; and before I had time to understand, 
Rorie also had appeared, calling directions in Gaelic 
as to a dog herding sheep. 

I took to my heels to interfere, and perhaps I had 
done better to have waited where I was, for I was 
the means of cutting off the madman’s last escape. 


THE MERRY MEN. 


363 


There was nothing before him from that moment 
but the grave, the wreck, and the sea in Sandag 
Bay. And yet Heaven knows that what I did was 
for the best. 

My Uncle Gordon saw in what direction, horrible 
to him, the chase was driving him. He doubled, 
darting to the right and left ; but high as the fever 
ran in his veins, the black was still the swifter. 
Turn where he would, he was still forestalled, still 
driven toward the scene of his crime. Suddenly he 
began to shriek aloud, so that the coast re-echoed ; 
and now both I and Korie were calling on the black 
to stop. But all was vain, for it was written other- 
wise. The pursuer still ran, the chase still sped 
before him screaming ; they avoided the grave, and 
skimmed close past the timbers of the wreck ; in a 
breath they had cleared the sand ; and still my kins- 
man did not pause, but dashed straight into the 
surf ; and the black, now almost within reach, still 
followed swiftly behind him. Rorie and I both 
stopped, for the thing was now beyond the hands of 
men, and these were the decrees of God that came 
to pass before our eyes. There was never a sharper 
ending. On that steep beach they were beyond 
their depth at a bound; neither could swim; the 
black rose once for a moment with a throttling cry ; 
but the current had them, racing seaward ; and if 
ever they came up again, which God alone can tell, 
it would be ten minutes after, at the far end of Aros 
Roost, where the seabirds hover fishing. 

THE END. 


A. L. Burt’s Catalogue of Books for 
Young People by Popular Writers, 52- 
58 Duane Street, New York 


BOOKS FOR BOYS. 

Joe’s Luck: A Boy^s Adventures in California. By 

Horatio Alger, Jr. 12nio, cloth, illustrated, price $1.00. 

The story is chock f«ll of stirring Incidents, while the amusing situ- 
ations are furnished by Joshua Bickford, from Pumpkin Hollow, and the 
fellow who modestly styles himself the "Rip-tail Roarer, from Pike Co., 
Missouri.” Mr. Alger never writes a poor book, and "Joe’s Luck” is cer- 
tainly one of his best. 

Tom the Bootblack; or. The Eoad to Success. By 

Horatio Alger, Jr. 12iiio, cloth, illustrated, price $1.00. 

A bright, enterprising lad was Tom the Bootblack. He was not at all 
ashamed of his humble calling, though always on the lookout to better 
himself. The lad started for Cincinnati to look up his heritage. Mr. 
Grey, the uncle, did not hesitate to employ a ruffian to kill the lad. The 
plan failed, and Gilbert Grey, once Tom the bootblack, came into a com- 
fortable fortune. This is one of Mr. Alger’s best stories. 

Ban the Newsboy. By Horatio Alger, Jr. 12mo, 

cloth, illustrated, price $1.00. 

Dan Mordaunt and his mother live in a poor tenement, and the lad is 
pluckily trying to make ends meet by selling papers in the streets of New 
York. A little heiress of six years is confided to the care of the Mor- 
daunts. The child is kidnapped and Dan tracks the child to the house 
where she is hidden, and rescues her. The wealthy aunt of the little 
heiress is so delighted with Dan’s courage and many good qualities 
that she adopts him as her heir. 

Tony the Hero; A Brave Boy’s Adventure with a 

Tramp. By Horatio Alger, Jr. 12mo, cloth, illustrated, price $1.00. 
Tony, a sturdy bright-eyed boy of fourteen, is under the control of 
Rudolph Rugg, a thorough rascal. After much abuse Tony runs away 
and gets a job as stable boy in a country hotel. Tony is heir to a 
large estate. Rudolph for a consideration hunts up Tony and throws 
him down a deep well. Of course Tony escapes from the fate provided 
for him, and by a brave act, a rich friend secures his rights and Tony 
Is prosperous. A very entertaining book. 

The Errand Boy; or. How Phil Brent Won Success. 

By Horatio Ai.ger, Jr. 12mo, cloth illustrated, price $1.00. 

The career of "The Errand Boy” embraces the city adventures of a 
smart country lad. Philip was brought up by a kind-hearted innkeeper 
earned Brent. The death of Mrs. Brent paved the way for the hero’s 
subsequent troubles. A retired merchant in New York secures him the 
situation of errand boy, and thereafter stands as his friend. 

Tom Temple’s Career. By Horatio Alger, Jr. 12mo, 

cloth, illustrated, price $1.00. 

Tom Temple is a bright, self-reliant lad. He leaves Plympton village 
to seek work in New York, whence he undertakes an important mission 
to California. Some of his adventures in the far west are so startling that 
the reader will scarcely close the book until the last page shall have been 
reached. The tale is written in Mr. Alger’s most fascinating style. 


For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the 
publisher, A. L. BURT, 52-58 Duane Street New York. 


A. L. BURT^S BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. 


BOOKS FOR BOYS. 

Frank Fowler, the Cash Boy. By Horatio Alger, Jb. 

32mo, cloth, illustrated, price SI. 00. 

Frank Fowler, a poor boy, bravely determines to make a living: for 
himself and his foster-sister Grace. Going to New York he obtains a 
situation as cash boy in a dry goods store. He renders a service to a 
we?ilthy old gentleman who takes a fancy to the lad, and thereafter 
tie’ps the lad to gain success and fortune. 

Tom Thatcher’s Fortune. By Horatio Alger^ Jr, 

12mo, cloth, illustrated, price $1.00. 

Tom Thatcher is a brave, ambitious, unselfish boy. He supports his 
mother and sister on meagre wages earned as a shoe-pegger in John 
Simpson’s factory. Tom is discharged from the factory and starts over- 
land for California. He meets with many adventures. The story is told 
in a way which has made Mr. Alger’s name a household word in so many 
homes. 

The Train Boy. By Horatio Alger, Jr. 12ino, 

cloth, illustrated, price $1.00. 

Paul Palmer was a wide-awake boy of sixteen who supported his mother 
and sister by selling books and papers on the Chicago and Milwaukee 
Railroad. He detects a young man in the act of picking the pocket of t'. 
young lady. In a railway accident many passengers aro killed, but Paul 
is fortunate enough to assist a Chicago merchant, who out of gratitude 
takes him into his employ. Paul succeeds with tact and judgment and 
is well started on the road to business prominence. 

Mark Mason’s Victory. The Trials and Triumphs of 

a Telegraph Boy. By Horatio Alger, Jb. 12mo, cloth, illustrated, price 

$ 1 . 00 . 

Mark Mason, the telegraph boy, was a sturdy, honest lad, who plucklly 
won his way to success by his honest manly efforts under many diffi- 
culties. This story will please the very large class of boys who regard 
Mr. Alger as a favorite author. 

^ Debt of Honor. The Story of Gerald Lane’s Success 

in the Far West. By Horatio Alger, Jr. 12mo, cloth, illustrated, price 

$ 1 . 00 . 

The story of Gerald Lane and the account of the many trials and dis- 
appointments which he passed through befoi he attained success, will 
Interest all boys who have read the previous stories of this delightful 
author. 

Ben Bruce. Scenes in the Life of a Bowery Newsboy. 

By Horatio Alger, Jr. 12mo, cloth, illustrated, price $1.00. 

Ben Bruce was a brave, manly, generous boy. The story of his efforts, 
and many seeming failures and disappointments, and his final success, are 
most interesting to all readers. The tale is written in Mr. Alger’s 
most fascinating style. 

The Castaways; or. On the Florida Beefs. By James 

Otis. 12nio, cloth, illustrated, price $1.00. 

This tale smacks of the salt sea. From the moment that the Sea 
Queen leaves lower New York bay till the breeze leaves her becalmed off 
ie coast of Florida, one can almost hear the whistle of the wind 
ffirough her rigging, the creak of her straining cordage as she heels to 
the leeward. 'The adventures of Ben Clark, the hero of the story and 
Jake the cook, cannot fail to charm the reader. As a writer for young 
people Mr. Otis is a prime favorite. 

For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the 

pnbllsber, A. L. BUBT, 52-58 Duane Street, New York. > 


A. L. BURT^S BOOKS FOE YOUNG PEOPLE 


3 


BOOKS FOR BOYS. 

Wrecked on Spider Island; or. How Ned Rogers Found 

the Treasure. By Jambs Otis. 12ino, cloth, illustrated, price 51-00- 

Ned Rogers, a “down-east” plucky lad ships as cabin boy to earn 
a livelihood. Ned is marooned on Spider Island, and while there dis- 
covers a wreck submerged in the sand, and finds a considerable amount 
Of treasure. The capture of the treasure and the Incidents of the 
foyage serve to make us entertaining a story of sea-life as the most 
captious boy could desire. 

The Search for the Silver City : A Tale of Adventure in 

Yucatan. By James Otis. 12mo, cloth, illustrated, price $1.00. 

Two lads, Teddy Wright and Neal Emery, embark on the steam 
yacht Day Dream for a cruise to the tropics. The yacht is destroyed 
by fire, and then tbe boat is cast upon the coast of Yucatan. They 
bear of the wonderful Silver City, of the Chan Santa Cruz Indians, 
and with the help of a faithful Indian ally carry off a number of the 
golden images from the temples. Pursued with relentless vigor at last 
their escape is effected in an astonishing manner. The story is so 
full of exciting incidents that the reader Is quite carried away with 
the novelty and realism of the narrative. 

A Runaway Brig; or. An Accidental Cruise. By 

James Otis. 12mo, cloth, illustrated, price $1.00. 

This is a sea tale, and the reader can look out upon the wide shimmer- 
ing sea as it flashes back the sunlight, and imagine himself afloat with 
Harry Vandyne, Walter Morse, Jim Libby and that old shell-back. Bob 
Brace, on the brig Bonita. The boys discover a mysterious document 
JFhJch enables them to find a buried treasure. They are stranded on 
*15 island and at last are rescued with the treasure. The boys are sure 
to be fascinated with this entertaining story. 

The Treasure Finders: A Boy^s Adventures in 

Nicaragua. By James Otis. 12mo, cloth, illustrated, price $1.00. 

Roy and Dean Coloney, with their guide Tongla, leave their father’s 
Indigo plantation to visit the wonderful ruins of an ancient city. The 
boys eagerly explore the temples of an extinct race and discover three 
golden Images cunningly hidden away. They escape with the greatest 
ilfSculty. Eventually they reach safety with their golden prizes. We 
doubt if there ever was written a more entertaining story than “The 
Treasure Finders.” 

Jack, the Hunchback. A Story of the Coast of Maine. 

By James Otis. Price $1.00. 

This Is the story of a little hunchback who lived on Cape Elizabeth, 
on the coast of Maine. His trials and successes are mest Interesting. 
From first to last nothing stays the Interest of the narrative. It bears us 
along as on a stream whose current varies in direction, but never loses 
Its force. 

With Washington at Monmouth: A Story of Three 

Philadelphia Boys. By James Otis. 12mo, ornamental cloth, olivine 

edges, illustrated, price $1.50. 

Three Philadelphia lads assist the American spies and make regular 
and frequent visits to Valley Forge In the Winter while the British 
occupied the city. The story abounds with pictures of Colonial life 
skillfully drawn, and the glimpses of Washington’s soldiers which are 
given shown that the w'ork has not been hastily done, or without con- 
siderable study. The story is wholesome and patriotic in tone, as are 
all of Mr. Otis’ works. 


For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by tb? 
Ottblisber. A. L. BURT. 62-58 Duane Street, New York. 


t A. L. BURT^S BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. 


BOOKS FOR BOYS. 

iWith Lafayette at Yorktown: A Story of How Two 

Boys Joined the Continental Army. By James Otis. 12mo, ornamental 
cloth, olivine edges, illustrated, price $1.50. 

Two lads from Portm.uth, N. H., attempt to enlist In the Colonial 
Army, and are given employment as spies. There is no lack of exciting 
Incidents which the youthful reader craves, but it is healthful excite- 
ment brimming with facts which every boy should be familiar with, 
and while the reader is following the adventures of Ben Jaffrays and 
Ned Allen he is acquiring a fund of historical lore which will remain 
Jn his memory long after that which he has memorized from text- 
books has been forgotten. 

lAt the Siege of Havana. Being the Experiences of 

Three Boys Serving under Israel Putnam in 1763, By James Otis. 12mo, 
ornamental cloth, olivine edges, illustrated, price Sl-50. 

“At the Siege of Havana” deals with that portion of the island’s 
history when the English king captured the capital, thanks to the 
assistance given by the troops from New England, led In part by CoL 
Israel Putnam. 

The principal characters are Darius Lunt, the lad who, represented as 
telling the story, and his comrades, Robert Clement and Nicholas 
Vallet. Colonel Putnam also figures to considerable extent, necessarily. 
In the tale, and the whole forms one of th^ most readable stories founded on 
historical facts. 

The Defense of Fort Henry. A Story of Wheeling 

Creek in 1777. By James Otis. 12mo, ornamental cloth, olivine edges. 
Illustrated, price $1.50. 

Nowhere in the history of our country can be found more heroic or 
thrilling incidents than in the story of those brave men and women 
who founded the settlement of Wheeling in the Colony of Virginia. The 
recital of what Elizabeth Zane did Is in itself as heroic a story as can 
be Imagined. The wondrous bravery displayed by Major McCulloch 
and his gallant comrades, the sufferings of the colonists and their sacrifice 
of blood and life, stir the blood of old as well as young readers. 

The Capture of the Laughing Mary. A Story of Three 

New York Boys in 1776. By James Otis. 12mo, ornamental cloth, olivine 
edges, price S1.50. 

“During the British occupancy of New York, at the outbreak of the 
Revolution, a Yankee lad hears of the plot to take General Washington’s 
person, and calls in two companions to assist the patriot cause. They 
do some astonishing things, and. Incidentally, lay the way for an 
American navy later, by the exploit which gives its name to the 
work. Mr. Otis’ books are too well known to require any particular 
commendation to the young.” — Evening Post. 

With Warren at Bunker Hill. A Story of the Siege of 

Boston. By James Otis. 12mo, omametnal cloth, olivine edges, illus- 
trated, price $1.50. 

“This is a tale of the siege of Boston, which opens on the day after 
the doings at Lexington and Concord, with a description of home life 
In Boston, Introduces the reader to the British camp at Charlestown, 
shows Gen. Warren at home, describes what a boy thought of the 
battle of Bunker Hill, and closes with the raising of the siege. The 
three heroes, George Wentworth, Ben Scarlett and an old ropemaker. 
Incur the enmity of a young Tory, who causes them many adventure# 
the boys will like to read.” — Detroit Free Press. 


For sale by all bnokeellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by th*, 
publisher, A. L. BURT, 62-68 Duane Street, New York. 


A. L. BURT^S BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. 5 


BOOKS FOR BOYS. 

With the Swamp Fox. The Story of General Marion’s 

Spies. By James Otis. 12mo, cloth, illustrated, price Sl.OO. 

This story deals with General Francis Marion’s heroic struggle in the 
Carolinas. General Marion’s arrival to take command of these brave 
men and rough riders is pictured as a boy might have seen it, and 
although the story is devoted to what the lads did, the Swamp Fox 
is ever present in the mind of the reader. 

On the Kentucky Frontier. A Story of the Fighting 

Pioneers of the West. By James Otis. 13mo, cloth, illustrated, price $1. 
In the history of our country there is no more thrilling story than 
that of the work done on the Mississippi river by a handful of frontiers- 
men. Mr. Otis takes the reader on that famous expedition from the 
arrival of Major Clarke’s force at Corn Island, until Kaskaskia was 
captured. He relates that part of Simon Kenton’s life history which 
is not usually touched upon either by the historian or the story teller. 
This is one of the most entertaining books for young people which has 
been published. 

Sarah Dillard’s Ride. A Story of South Carolina in 

in 1780. By James Otis. i2mo, cloth, illustrated, price $1-00. 

“This book deals with the Carolinas in 1780, giving a wealth of detail of 
the Mountain Men who struggled so valiantly against the king’s troops. 
Major Ferguson is the prominent British officer of the story, which is 
told as though coming from a youth who experienced these adventures. 
In this way the famous ride of Sarah Dillard is brought out as an 
Incident of the plot.” — Boston Journal. 

A Tory Plot. A Story of the Attempt to Kill General 

Washington. By James Otis. 12mo, cloth, illustrated, price 81.00. 

“ ‘A Tory Plot’ is the story of two lads who overhear something 
of the plot originated during the Revolution by Gov. Tryon to capture 
or murder Washington. They communicate their knowledge to Gen. 
Putnam and are commissioned by him to play the role of detectives 
In the matter. They do so, and meet with many adventures and hair- 
breadth escapes. The boys are, of course, mythical, but they serve to en- 
able the author to put into very attractive shape much valuable knowledge 
concerning one phase of the Revolution.” — Pittsburgh Times. 

A Traitor’s Escape. A Story of the Attempt to Seize 

Benedict Arnold, By James 0ns. 12mo, cloth, illustrated, price 81.00. 
“This is a tale with stirring scenes depicted in each chapter, bringing 
clearly before the mind the glorious deeds of the early settlers in this 
country. In an historical work dealing with this country’s past, no 
plot can hold the attention closer than this one, which describes the 
attempt and partial success of Benedict Arnold’s escape to New York, 
where he remained as the guest of Sir Henry Clinton. All those \v!:o 
actually figured in the arrest of the traitor, as well as Gen. Washing- 
ton, are Included as characters.” — Albany Union. 

A Cruise with Paul Jones. A Story of Naval Warfare 

in 1776. By James Otis. 12mo, cloth, illustrate, price 8100. 

“This story takes up that portion of Paul Jones’ adventurous life 
when he was hovering off the British coast, watching for an oppor- 
tunity to strike the enemy a blow. It deals more particularly with 
Ms descent upon Whitehaven, the seizure of Lady Selkirk’s plate, and 
the famous battle with the Drake. The boy who figures in the tale 
Is one who was taken from a derelict by Paul Jones shortly after this 
particular cruise was begun.” — Chicago Inter-Ocean. 


For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price By thj 

publisher, A. L. BURT, 52-58 Duane Street, New York. 


6 A. L. BURT^S BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE, 


BOOKS FOR BOYS. 

Corporal Lige’s Eecrnit. A Story of Crown Point and 

Ticondero^a. By James Otis. 12nio, cloth, illustrated, price 81,00. 

“In ‘Corporal Lite’s Recruit,* Mr. Otis tells the amusiu^r story of an 
old soldier, proud of his record, who had served the king in *58, and who 
takes the lad, Isaac Rice, as his ‘personal recruit.' The lad acquits 
himself superbly. Col. Ethan Allen *in the name of God and the con- 
tinental congrees,’ infuses much martial spirit into the narrative, which 
will arouse the keenest interest as it proceeds. Crown Point. Ticon- 
deroga, Benedict Arnold and numerous other famous historical names 
appear in this dramatic tale.** — Boston Globe. 

Morgan, the Jersey Spy. A £!tory of the Siege of York- 

town in 1781. By James Otis. 12mo, cloth, riustrated, price $1.00. 

“The two lads who are utilized by the author to emphasize the details 
Of the work done during that memorable time were real boys w^ho lived 
on the banks of the York river, and who aided the Jersey spy in his 
dangerous occupation. In the guise of fishermen the lads visit York- 
towm, are suspected of being spies, and put under arrest. Morgan risks 
his life to save them. The final escape, the thrilling encounter with a 
squad of red coats, when they are exposed equally to the bullets of 
friends and foes, told in a masterly fashion, makes of this volume one 
of the most entertaining books of the year.*’ — Inter-Ocean. 

The Young Scout: The Story of a West Point Lieu- 

tenant. By Edward S. Ellis. cloth, illustrated, price 81.00. 

The crafty Apache chief Goronlmo but a few years ago was the 
most terrible scourge of the southwest border. The author has woven, 
in a tale of thrilling interest, all the incidents of Geronimo’s last raid. 
The hero is Lieutenant James Decker, a recent graduate of West Point. 
Ambitious to distinguish himself the young man takes many a desperate 
chance against the enemy and on more than one occasion narrowly 
escapes -with his life. In our opinion Mr, Ellis is the best writer of 
Indian stories now before the public. 

Adrift in the Wildi: The Adventures of Two Ship- 

wrecked Boys. By Edward S. Ellis. 12mo, cloth, illustrated, price $1.00. 

Elwood Brandon and Howard Lawrence are en route for San Fran- 
Oisco. Off the coast of California the steamer takes fire. The two boys 
reach the shore with several of the passengers. Young Brandon be- 
comes separated from his party and is captured by hostile Indians, 
but Is afterwards rescued. This is a very entertaining narrative of 
Southern California. 

A Young H«ro; or. Fighting to Win. By Edward S. 

Ellis. 12ino, cloth, illustrated, price $1.00. 

This story tells how a valuable solid silver service was stolen front 
the Misses Perkinpine, two very old and simple minded ladies. Fred 
Sheldon, the hero of this story, undertakes to discover the thieves and 
have them arrested. After much time spent in detective work, he 
succeeds In discovering the silver plate and winning the reward. The 
story is told in Mr. Ellis’ most fascinating style. Every boy will be 
glad to read this delightful book. 

Lost in the Eoekiet. A Story of Adventure in the 

Rocky Mountains. By Edward S. Ellis. 12mo, cloth, illustrated, price $1. 

Incident succeeds Incident, and adventure Is piled upon adventure, 
and at the end the reader, be he boy or man, will have experienced 
breathless enjoyment in this romantic story describing many adventures in 
the Rockies and among the Indians. 

For sale by all hooksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the 
publisher, A. L. BURT, 52-58 Duane Street, New York* 


A, L. BURT^S BOOKS FOE YOUNG PEOPLE. 7 \ 


BOOKS FOR BOYS. 

A Jaunt Through Java: The Story of a Journey to 

Mountain. By Edward S. Ellis. 12mo, cloth, illustrated, 

pi*lC0 

The interest of this story is found in the thrilling adventures of 
two cousins, Hermon and Eustace Hadley, on their trip acrosss the island 
of Java, from Samarang to the Sacred Mountain. In a land where the 
Royal Bengal tiger, the rhinoceros, and other fierce beasts are to be 
met with, it is but natural that the heroes of this book should have a 
lively experience. There is not a dull page in the book. 

The Boy Patriot. A Story of Jack, the Young Friend 

of W^hingtcm. By Edward S. Ellis. 12mo, cloth, olivine edges, illus* 
trated, price $1.50. a i 

I “There are adventures of all kinds for the hero and his friends, whose 
■pluck and ingenuity in extricating themselves from awkward fixes are 
always equal to the occasion. It Is an excellent story full of honest, 
manly, patriotic efforts on the part of the hero. A very vivid description 
of the battle of Trenton is also found in this story.” — Journal of 
Education. 

A Yankee Lad’s Pluck, How Bert Larkin Saved his 

Father’s Ranch in Porto Rico. By Wm. P. Chipman. 12mo, cloth, illus- 
trated, price $1.00. 

“Bert Larkin, the hero of the story, early excites our admiration, 
and is altogether a fine character such as boys will delight in, whilst 
the story of his numerous adventures Is very graphically told. This 
will, we think, prove one of the most popular boys’ books this season.”— 
Gazette. 

A Brave Defense. A Story of the Massacre at Fort 

Griswold in 1781. By William P. Chipman. 12mo, cloth, illustrated, prica 

$ 1 . 00 . 

Perhaps no more gallant fight against fearful odds took place during 
the Revolutionary War than that at Fort Griswold, Groton Heights, Conn., 
in 1781. The boys are real boys who were actually on the muster rolls, 
either at Fort Trumbull on the New London side, or of Fort Griswold on 
the Groton side of the Thames. The youthful reader who follows Halsey 
Sanford and Levi Dart and Tom Malleson, and their equally brave com- 
rades, through their thrilling adventures will be learning something more 
than historical facts; they will be Imbibing lessons of fidelity, of bravery, 
of heroism, and of manliness, which must prove serviceable In the arena 
of life. 

The Young Minuteman. A Story of the Capture of 

General Prescott in 1777. By William P. Chipman. 12mo, cloth, illustrated, 
price $1.00. 

This story is based upon actual events which occurred during the British 
occupation of the waters of Narragansett Bay. Darius Wale and William 
Northrop belong td “the coast patrol.” The story is a strong one, dealing 
only with actual events. There is, however, no lack of thrilling adventure, 
and every lad who Is fortunate enough to obtain the book will find not 
only that bis historical knowledge Is increased, but that his own patriotism 
and love of country are deepened. 

For the Temple: A Tale of the Fall of Jerusalem. 

By G. A. Hknty. With illustrations by S. J. Solomon. 12mo, cloth, olivine 
edges, price fl.OO. 

“Mr. Henty’s graphic prose picture of the hopeless Jewish resistance 
to Roman sway adds another leaf to his record of the famous wars oi 
the world. The book is one of Mr. Henty’s cleverest efforts.” — Graphic. 

For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by tha 
publisher, A. L. BURT, 52-58 Duane Street, New York. 


8 A. L. BURT^’S BOOKS FOR YOUNO PEOPLE, 


BOOKS FOR BOYS. 

Eoy Gilbert’s Search : A Tale of the Great Lakes. By 

Wm. P, Chipman. 12mo, cloth, illustrated, price $1.00. 

A deep mystery hangs over the parentage of Roy Gilbert. He arranges 
with two schoolmates to make a tour of the Great Lakes on a steam 
launch. The three boys visit many points of interest on the lakes. 
Afterwards the lads rescue an elderly gentleman and a lady from a sink- 
ing yacht. Later on the boys narrowly escape with their lives. The 
hero is a manly, self-reliant boy, whose adventures will be followed 
with interest. 

The Slate Picker: The Story of a Boy’s Life in the 

Coal Mines. By Harry Prentice. 12mo, cloth, illustrated, price $1.00. 
This is a story of a boy’s life in the coal mines of Pennsylvania. 
Ben Burton, the hero, had a hard road to travel, but by grit and energy 
he advanced step by step until he found himself called upon to fill the 
position of chief engineer of the Kohinoor Coal Company. This is a 
book of extreme interest to every boy reader. 

The Boy Cruisers; or, Paddling in Florida. By St. 

George Rathborne. 12mo, cloth, illustrated, price $1.00 
Andrew George and Rowland Carter start on a canoe trip along the 
Gulf coast, from Key West to Tampa, Florida. Their first adventure 
is with a pair of rascals who steal their boats. Next they run Into 
£ gale in the Gulf. After that they have a lively time with alli- 
gators and Andrew gets into trouble with a band of Seminole Indians. 
Mr. Rathborne knows just how to interest the boys, and lads who are 
in search of a rare treat will do well to read this entertaining story. 

Captured by Zulus: A Story of Trapping in Africa. 

By Harry Prentice. 12mo, cloth, illustrated, price $1.00. 

This story details the adventures of two lads, Dick Elsworth and Bob 
narv<*y, in the wilds of South Africa. By strataRem the Zulus capture 
Dick and Bob and take them to their principal kraal or village. The 
lads escape death by dig ing their way out of the prison hut by night. 
Tney are pursued, but the Zulus finally give up pursuit. Mr. Prentice 
tells exactly how wild-beast collectors secure specimens on their native 
stamping grounds, and these descriptions make very entertaining re»dlng. 

Tom the Ready; or. Up from the Lowest. By Ran- 

dolph Hill. 12mo, cloth, illustrated, price $1.00. 

This is a dramatic narrative of the unaided rise of a fearless, ambi- 
tious boy from the lowest round of fortune’s ladder to wealth and the 
governorship of his native State. Tom Seacomb begins life with a pur- 
pose, and eventually overcomes those who oppose him. How he manages 
to win the battle is told by Mr. Hill In a masterful way that thrills 
the reader and holds his attention and sympathy to the end. 

Captain Kidd’s Gold: The True Story of an Adven- 

turous Sailor Boy. By James Franklin Fitts. 12mo, cloth, illustrated, 
price $1.00. 

There Is something fascinating to the average youth In the very Idea 
of buried treasure. A vision arises before his eyes of swarthy Portu- 
guese and Spanish rascals, with black beards and gleaming eyes. There 
were many famous sea rovers, but none more celebrated than Capt. Kidd. 
Paul Jones Garry inherits a document which locates a considerable 
treasure buried by two of Kidd’s crew. The hero of this book is an 
ambitious, persevering lad, of salt-water New England ancestry, and his 
efforts to reach the Island and secure the money form one of the most 
abs^rt»ing tales for our youth that has come from the press. 

V'r^r Kale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the 
rR/ilsLcr, A. L. BURT, 52-58 Duane Street. Now \crk. 



















